Return of the Jedi
by Morwen Tindomerel
Summary: An AU RotJ from Luke's pov. Something of a sequel to 'Education of the Jedi' with the OCs from that story either mentioned or featured. Finished. Finally!
1. A Rescue Party of One

Local tradition says Jabba's palace was originally a monastery. I believe it, who but a bunch of ascetic monks would choose to live on the edge of the Dune Sea? But for the last couple of hundred years it's served as the headquarters of one gangster chieftain or another. Jabba's just the latest in a long ignoble line. I got out of the speeder, and stood for a moment considering the sandblasted portcullis guarding the entrance to the Hutt's stronghold.

'Guess we don't have time for a plan.' I smiled involuntarily remembering Lando's disgruntled comment at our last meeting.

'There's no point in making plans,' I'd replied patiently, 'there's no telling what Jabba'll do. Don't worry, the Force will guide us.'

'You sound just like Jinn!' he'd grumbled. And then he'd gone back to the palace like I'd asked him to.

I was getting used to that - to people doing what I wanted even when they didn't like it. They all did now, Lando, Chewy, even Leia. Nobody tried to boss the 'kid' anymore. It was one of the things I missed most about Han. I wondered what he'd make of the change in me.

I'd stood out here long enough, if nobody saw fit to open the door I'd open it for myself. I reached out with the Force, found the opening mechanism and gave it the necessary nudge. Slowly, grudgingly it creaked upward. I knew what I wanted to accomplish, all I had to do was keep my eyes open and the means would present themselves. But I didn't quite have my Master's faith, not yet.

I'd taken care to plant a few allies; Lando and the droids, (poor Threepio! I hoped he'd forgive me. Artoo'd insisted it was better he not be told and he knew his counterpart better than anybody). And yesterday I'd sent Chewy and Leia in to look after Han. By now they should all be together in one of Jabba's cells. Finally the door finished grinding open and I entered. Cool, damp air rushed out flapping my long cloak as I headed down the wide, dimly lit tunnel. It was possible all my precautions would prove unnecessary, Jabba might be willing to deal. Yeah, and there might be rainstorms in the Jundland Wastes. Odds were I'd have to kill him to get Han out. The prospect did not displease me.

A pair of bulky Gammorean guards appeared, trying to block my path. A gesture closed their throats and sent them reeling back fighting for air before lapsing into unconsciousness. I continued on.

A pudgy, unhealthy looking yellow Twi'lek male came bustling out of the cavernous room below babbling indignantly in Huttese. "I must speak to Jabba." I told him. It seemed Jabba didn't want to see me. Too bad. The Twi'lek was no challenge at all. "You will take me to Jabba now."

"I will take you to Jabba now." he echoed obediently, still in Huttese, turned and led the way into Jabba's throne room.

It must have been quite a party. Empty cups and bottles, and trampled remains of food littered the floor. Dozens of unconscious or sleeping bodies huddled in the dim corners of the big chamber. "You serve your master well." I told the Twi'lek, no compliment that! "and you will be rewarded." As he deserved.

He repeated the words with smug pleasure as he went to wake his master. Leia wasn't in any cell, she was right there with a chain around her neck dressed in a skimpy slave-girl costume. Stupid of me, I should have remembered Jabba's taste for humanoid females. I should never have sent her into this place. Force only knew what she'd been subjected to, certainly she'd never tell me. I carefully stifled the first stirrings of anger as I came to stand before the Hutt's throne. There was no blame in her eyes, only apology and fear that she'd somehow ruined my plans. I returned her look for an instant projecting reassurance: Everything would be all right, I'd see to that.

Threepio was there too. "At last Master Luke's come to rescue me!" Good old Threepio!

I looked at Jabba. I'd heard of him all my life, he controls practically everything on Tatooine, but I'd never seen him before and he wasn't a pleasant sight. Hutts are unlovely anyway by human standards but Jabba was a particularly repulsive specimen with an ugliness that went well beyond the physical, all the way to the rotting distortion that was his soul. No, I wouldn't mind killing him one bit.

The Hutt woke with a start and the Twi'lek Major-Domo presented me. "Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight."

"I told you not to admit him." Jabba snarled.

"I must be allowed to speak." I responded, and was echoed by the Twi'lek.

Jabba was gross and evil but not stupid, he immediately realized what I'd done. He knocked his Major-Domo backward off the dais with an angry blow. "You weak minded fool! He's using an old Jedi mindtrick!"

I put back my hood and stepped closer. "You will bring Captain Solo and the Wookiee to me." the suggestion rolled off him like oil off metal plate.

He laughed. "Your mind powers will not work on me, boy!"

I was not disturbed by the failure. It had been worth a try but Master had warned me the mindtrick probably wouldn't work. Hutts tend to be resistant anyway and a powerful, soul dead specimen like Jabba would almost certainly be immune. But I sensed the Hutt was not as confident as he seemed. There was a definite undercurrent of fear. Good. Fear leads to anger and I wanted Jabba angry with me - and my friends.

"Nevertheless, I'm taking Captain Solo and his friends." I told him quietly but with all the certainty I could project. "You can either profit by this or...be destroyed! The choice is yours but I warn you not to underestimate my powers." I know, real diplomatic, but Han had once told me attitude and arrogance were the only line to take with a Hutt - and Jabba's sense told me he had been right. Anything less confrontational would be taken as weakness. I was rewarded by a flare of fear from the Hutt, ill concealed by his forced laughter.

"Master Luke," Threepio began, "you're standing on-"

Jabba interupted him. "There will be no bargain, young Jedi! I shall enjoy watching you die." Extending a hand and the Force I called a blaster to me. A Gammorean seized my arm wrestling for it. It went off powdering us both with stone dust from the ceiling then the floor dropped out from under us.

I disentangled myself from the Gammorean as we slid down a chute ending in into a dank pit carved into the living rock beneath Jabba's throne room. I rolled to my feet discarding my cloak. I felt like a fool. I'd fallen - literally - for one of the oldest traps in the book. Whatever was down here with us it was going to be nasty - the guard's hysterical terror made that much clear. A toothed metal portcullis, not unlike the front door, rumbled upward.

I didn't need Threepio's faintly heard, "Oh no, the rancor!" to recognize the monster facing me. Yoda can say what he likes but there are some advantages to spending your whole childhood looking forward to leaving home. I'm a real expert on xeno-zoology. Not only did I recognize the rancor I knew what planet it came from and what it ate - anything that moved. I eased back, trying not to be noticed. The Gammorean guard panicked and tried to climb back into the chute squealing with terror, catching the creature's attention. In an instant it'd caught him up and devoured him, armor and all.

The crowd above cheered. I felt sick. The reverberations of the guard's death and the blood thirst of Jabba's courtiers roiled the Force around me. I tried to block the disturbance out as the rancor slowly swung towards me. I spotted a long bone, remains of some previous victim, and snatched it up holding it instinctively in the usual two handed sabre grip. The rancor reached for me. Another cheer came from above as its massive paw nearly crushed my ribcage. I struggled to breath and found myself looking straight into the dripping cavern of the creature's maw. I shoved in the bone, wedging it tight, and the rancor gagged and dropped me. I quickly rolled into the cover of a convenient crevice.

I peered up at the creature as it flailed around in angry pain. I didn't want to kill it if I didn't have to. It wasn't evil, just a poor mistreated animal, half starved to make it vicious. I would have loved to give it a good square meal - say Jabba and his hangers on - but that seemed impractical. The bone snapped, and the Rancor angrily chewed up the fragments casting around for me. It was petty bright, quickly figuring out where I'd vanished to. It reached into my crevice after me. I dodged the scrabbling claws and caught a glimpse of the cavern behind the Rancor, and of a door leading out. I groped for a rock and smashed a rock down on a monstrous digit. The Rancor snatched back its paw with a roar of pain.

I took advantage of its distraction to make a run for that door. It opened but the way was blocked by a metal grate. I gave it one good heave but it was solid. I turned back to face the monster. Maybe a quick death would be kinder than leaving it here to suffer, not that I had any choice now.

I looked around for a way. And there it was - the control panel for the big door separating the den from the feeding pit. The rancor lumbered towards me. I picked up a skull and hurled it, with a little help from the Force, right into the panel just as the creature stepped beneath the portcullis. The controls exploded and down came the gate full on the Rancor's skull. It died almost instantly.

There was a stunned silence from above, then Jabba began roaring orders right and left as his court exploded into excited comment. The grate opened but the guards were thrown aside by a bulky man draped in an animal skin making a beeline for the Rancor's body. The guards grabbed me and I was careful not to resist as they dragged me out. A second beast keeper passed us, glaring pure murder at me. Looking over my shoulder I saw him trying to comfort the first keeper who was sobbing openly over the dead monster. I guess he'd been fond of his charge.

I felt bad too. The Rancor had been the cleanest thing in this hellhole. I was dragged up a spiral ramp and back into the throne room. Han and Chewy were being hustled in through another door. Good. All together now except for Artoo, and I knew where he'd be.

"Han!"

"Luke?" He looked around blindly. Master had warned me the long hibernation would affect his sight. "Are you all right?" Not that he'd admit it if he wasn't.

"Fine." he answered, predictably. "Together again, huh?"

"Wouldn't miss it." I grinned. Just being with Han made me feel like a wide eyed farm boy again.

"How are we doing?" he asked as we arrived in front of Jabba.

"Same as always." I admitted.

"That bad, huh?" then he asked with genuine concern. "Where's Leia?"

"I'm here!" she piped up from her place on the dais.

It was just as well Han couldn't see Jabba fondling her as he made a brief speech in a Huttese dialect I couldn't follow.

"Oh dear." said Threepio. Then he began to translate. "His High Exaltedness, the Great Jabba the Hutt, has decreed you are to be terminated immediately."

"Good." Han said promptly. "I hate long waits." Yeah, he was okay.

Threepio continued unhappily. "You will therefore be taken to the Dune Sea and cast into the Pit of Carkoon, nesting place of the all-powerful Sarlacc."

Perfect! Even better than the Arena or the Shivering Sands.

"That doesn't sound so bad." Han commented, ever the smart aleck.

"There you will find a new definition of pain and suffering as you are slowly digested over a thousand years." Threepio said, and shuddered.

I wondered idly how on Tatooine Jabba could know that. Somebody climb out once after only a century or two of digestion?

Chewy barked a comment lost on anybody who didn't speak Kasshyk-ka. Han translated freely. "On second thought let's pass on that, huh?" he sounded a little worried.

I wasn't. This was exactly what I'd been playing for. "You should have bargained, Jabba." the guards began to drag me away and I had to call the final words over my shoulder. "It's the last mistake you'll ever make!"

He took it for bravado of course, which was just fine. Leia looked upset though.

"So, what'd you do to piss off his exaltedness?" Han asked me after they'd thrown us into a holding cell.

"Killed his pet." I admitted.

"His what?" Han asked blankly, then incredulously. "You mean the Rancor?"

"It was just a little one." I told him. True enough, they can grow to twice that size back on their homeworld - or so the books said.

"I told you, he's a Jedi Knight." Chewy growled.

"Yeah." Han said, clearly unconvinced. "No offense, kid, but I'll believe it when I see it - if you'll excuse the expression."

The door creaked open. Didn't anybody in this place have a can of lubricant? A squad of guards entered, Lando at their head. He went straight to Han, grabbing him in a way that looked rough but wasn't. "Okay, you, time to go."

Han pulled away. "What's your hurry, got a hot date?"

"Yeah, but not as hot as yours!"

I sensed the exchange meant more than it seemed; Lando had just apologized - and been forgiven. Good. I'd been afraid Han might hold a grudge, be unwilling to trust Lando. I should have remembered they'd been friends for a long time - and this wasn't the first time one had done the other a dirty trick.


	2. The Sarlacc

I actually enjoyed the trip out to the Pit. We, Han and Chewy and I, rode in an open sand skiff with Lando and three other guards. And there was a second skiff escorting Jabba's sail barge, a lumbering red sailed thing.

We skimmed over the slow moving, wind blown waves of the Dune Sea with the hot dry air of Tatooine rushing over us and the light of the double suns reflecting blindingly off the golden sand. It was beautiful in its harsh, sun scoured way. I'd learned to appreciate Tatooine during the two weeks I'd been living in Ben's hut. Maybe I was somehow tuning in to the presence he'd left behind and seeing my homeworld through his eyes.

I'd hated the place as a kid and lived to get off it but I didn't feel that way now. Actually Tatooine wasn't half bad compared to say Dagobah or Had Abbadon or Kessel. And it was my home. If I survived I'd be coming back here. Chani wouldn't mind. It was her home too.

"I think my eyes are getting better." Han announced suddenly, before I had time to ask myself just when Chani'd begun to figure in my future. "Instead of a big dark blur, I see a big light blur."

I almost laughed. "There's nothing to see. I used to live here, you know."

"Your'e gonna die here, you know. Convenient."

No, not here. "Just stay close to Chewy and Lando." I told him, "I've taken care of everything."

"Oh....great." Han wasn't buying it and I couldn't blame him. I knew he was remembering the feckless kid without sense enough to come in out of the snow. I'd changed but he couldn't know that - yet.

The Pit of Carkoon was something else I'd heard about but never seen. A whirlpool of sand with a gaping, tooth lined maw and predatory beak at the bottom. I grimaced, this was no innocent, misused animal. There was sentience there of a sort, and malice. A guard unfastened my bonds and shoved me onto a sort of plank extending over the Pit.

Threepio's voice floated to us from the barge. "Victims of the almighty Sarlacc: His Excellency hopes that you will die honorably."

Sure he did.

"But should any of you wish to beg for mercy the Great Jabba the Hutt will now listen to your pleas."

I just bet he would - the sadistic slug!

Han agreed. "Threepio! You tell that slimy piece of worm ridden filth he'll get no such pleasure from us! Right?"

There was a distinct pause before Chewy growled "Right!".

I saw Artoo emerge onto the barge's deck and roll to the rail. Now everything was in place. "Jabba! this is your last chance. Free us or die." Not a threat, a simple statement of fact. Of course he didn't take me seriously, the barge fairly rocked with laughter. Well I'd tried.

"Move him into position!"

The guard nudged me with his vibro-axe. I walked out to the end to the plank and looked down. Nasty. Then back over my shoulder to give Lando the nod. He returned it, completely confident I knew what I was doing and ready to back me to the hilt. Han on the other hand looked desperate, casting around for a way out. But Chewy was right next to him, he'd keep him from doing anything crazy - I hoped. I looked up at the barge and smiled reassuringly at Leia, tense and anxious beside Jabba. And then I threw my faithful little droid a salute. I saw his head dome open.

"Put him in!" Jabba ordered.

I saved them the trouble and jumped, twisting in mid-air to catch the end of the plank as I fell past. It rebounded catapulting me upward, over the heads of the guards to land on the deck. I put out a hand and my lightsabre fell right into it. Igniting it I cleared the skiff with a few swipes of the blade - I got no style but I'm effective.

Han was demanding to know what was going on and Chewy growling reassurances. Lando was wrestling with the helmsman but seemed to have matters in hand so I took a second to cut Han and Chewy's bonds. Then a blast from the sail barge rocked us, sending Lando and his opponent over the side. I saw the guard roll into the Sarlacc's maw but Lando managed to grab a dangling rope. I moved to help him and Boba Fett landed directly in front of me laser rifle aimed. I cut it in half. Talk about your slow learners! you'd think after Had Abbadon he'd know better than to pull a gun on a Jedi.

The skiff shied under a second volley. Chewy knocked Han flat with a roar of alarm or maybe pain. "Chewy you hit?" Han demanded frantically, "Where is it?" I spared them a quick glance. Chewy was okay, hanging on to Han trying to shield him from the incoming fire.

Then a cable wrapped itself around me, another bounty hunter gadget. I gave Fett a scornful look. Was this the best he could do? a flick of my sabre and I was free. Then a well timed if ill-aimed blast from the barge knocked Fett on his face and right out of the fight.

Lando's voice came from over the side, close to panic. "Han! Chewy!"

And another round of fire, this time from the second skiff, detonated around me. I decided I'd better take care of that and made a Force jump into its bow landing right in front of the astonished guards. They had good reaction time, I'll give them that. I deflected their volley with my sabre and waded into them. Jabba didn't keep a very high class of mercenary. In minutes I had the second skiff to myself. I turned in time to see the first skiff heel over under fire from the barge. My heart stopped as Han nearly went overboard, then started again as Chewy caught him just in time. I had to do something about that gun.

Another leap took me to the side of the barge. A guard popped out of a hatch and I grabbed his gun arm pulling him all the way out. He tumbled down the slope into the Sarlacc's gullet. I was going to give the creature a bad case of indigestion if I kept this up. A finger breaking scrabble up the hull then over the rail and onto the deck. I ignited my sabre and took out both gun and gunner then turned to face the guards converging on me, deflecting their fire. I was getting better at placing my returns - but not much. I struck down anybody that got within blade length and they soon learned to keep their distance. Suddenly Leia emerged from below followed by Threepio and Artoo. She started to go for a fallen hand laser.

"Get the gun!" I shouted, meaning the deck cannon. "Point it at the deck!" She obeyed instantly while I did my best to cover her. "Point it at the deck!" A laser bolt caught me on the hand, the prosthetic one luckily. Not that synthetic nerve endings don't hurt just as much as the real thing for a second or two before the safeties cut in. I recovered and downed a guard who'd gotten to close. The others backed off. I saw Threepio and Artoo tumble over the side.

Right, time to go. I jumped up on the afterdeck gun mount, grabbed a convenient bit of rigging and held an arm out to Leia. "Come on." She wrapped her arms around my neck amd I kicked the trigger with my free foot sending a full volley straight into the deck as I launched us towards the skiff.

The others were safe aboard with Lando at the helm. "Let's go!" I ordered. "And don't forget the droids."

He grinned. "We're on our way!"

Behind us the barge disintegrated in a chain reaction of explosions. A final blast sending a rain of fiery debris after us as we skimmed away. Then Leia threw herself at Han - and Lando, Chewy and I hastily found ourselves things to do: Steer the skiff; clear the deck of debris; brush sand off of the droids. Every one of us wearing a big silly grin.

Eventually the muffled endearments became a little more coherent. When Han demanded to know what Leia was wearing I knew it was safe to turn around. "Practically nothing." she replied grinning up at him.

He grinned too, lasciviously, hands running over her bare back and shoulders. "Wish I could see that."

"I'm glad I can." Lando piped up from the stern. She did look good. I thought how much the troops would appreciate a picture in this outfit and grinned to myself.

"Watch it 'old friend'." Han warned. He didn't sound serious but still..

"Lando's been a great help to us. Without his recon work we wouldn't have had a chance of getting you out." I thought Han should know just how much Lando had done for us - and him.

"I know." he answered, glancing over his shoulder. "Chewy explained things." he turned back to his old friend. "So what happened? Vader just march in and make you an offer you couldn't refuse?"

"Something like that." the former Baron shrugged, "He said he needed you and the others as bait for Luke. Once he had what he wanted he'd go. You were supposed to stay on Cloud City with me."

"You believed that?" Han asked incredulously.

Another helpless shrug. "Like I had a choice? I had my people to think of - and Vader has a reputation for keeping his bargains."

Leia frowned. "That's right, he's never broken his word before."

"Aw come on!" Han protested.

"No it's true! I know how he operates, Han, I've been fighting him for years."

"He's always kept his word?" the question came out a bit more forcefully than I'd intended.

She turned to me, "Yes, always. Frankly I couldn't believe my ears when I heard him tell Lando he was altering the bargain. It just wasn't like him."

Wasn't like him? So Vader had a sense of honor did he...oddly I believed it. It fit with what I had sensed during our contact. He wasn't all dark, there were still a few sparks of light. "He must want me very badly." I said, mostly to myself. Like a father wants his son?

A distinct Force touch brushed my mind questingly. Automatically I shut it out, like it was one of Yoda's exercises, then looked up and saw Han's blind eyes fixed on me with a little frown. I stared at him in disbelief, he'd just tried to Force probe me!

"Maybe because you're a Jedi?" Leia was still worrying about Vader. "Maybe." I answered absently, my attention on Han.

"Look, kid," he said sharply, "you can't go around calling yourself a Jedi Knight." "I did kind of overstate." I admitted, ruefully. "Actually I'm only a Padawan." But that wouldn't have impressed Jabba.

Han's face went still with a kind of shock. "What did you say?" "A Padawan," I repeated, watching him intently. "it's the Jedi term for an apprentice or student."

"Whose student?" he exploded, "the old man's dead, Luke, and one sabre lesson doesn't make you a Jedi or a Padawan or anything!"

"I found another Teacher." I couldn't help smiling, remembering my first encounter with Yoda. "And a Padawan Master found me."

"The Jedi were all destroyed by the Empire." Han argued. "Whoever these guys are they can't be the real thing!"

"Trust me, Han," from Lando, "they are. I've seen Jinn fight, he's a Jedi all right."

"Jinn?" A flash of bewildered, near recognition passed over Han's baffled face.

"That's his name, Dai-Men Jinn." I explained. There was something there all right, long buried, almost forgotten. But what connection could there be between Han and my Master?

"Dai-Men Jinn." he repeated softly. I sensed confusion, conflict.

"Han?" Leia snuggled into his side, trying to get his attention. She succeeded. He looked down at her, preoccupied frown clearing a little. "I feel like I've heard that name before somewhere."

"Not likely." I said. "He told me he hasn't gone by his real name in years." Master wouldn't tell a direct lie - but it was possible Han had known him under an alias. Could he have picked Master's image out of my mind and recognized it?

"Yeah, well, maybe that carbonite's still playing tricks with my head." he said uncomfortably.

He obviously wanted to drop the subject and I decided not to press him. He was still recovering, it wouldn't be fair or kind. Besides Leia'd kill me. "Master said hibernation was very disorienting." I soothed. "The confusion, like your blindness, will pass."

"Soon, I hope." Han muttered. He wrapped his arms around Leia and I felt his confusion vanish, put aside and sealed off as he focused determinedly on the moment "What about my ship, how's the Falcon?"

I barely heard the banter that followed. It took discipline to clear the mind like that, Jedi type discipline. Somewhere, sometime Han had gotten some rudimentary training. Master had never so much as hinted he knew Han - which meant precisely nothing where Dai-Men was concerned. Had we shared a teacher? But if Han was a trained Force user why did he pretend not to believe in It? I could understand him hiding it at first, but after all these years? Surely he knew he could trust us by now.

He must have used Force powers to find me on Hoth, and maybe to keep us both alive over that long freezing night. And there'd been other things too over the years.. those hunches of his and what he liked to call his Corellian Luck. Untrained myself I'd missed the signs... until now. But why this conflict, this resistance at any mention of the Jedi? There was something very strange here....I looked at my friend and wondered: Who are you, Han Solo?


	3. Return to Dagobah

Han couldn't understand why I wasn't coming back to the Fleet with them. I considered trying Yoda's name out on him, just to see what

happened, but decided against it. Things were complicated enough already.

"I made a promise," I explained, "and I'm running out of time to keep it."

Leia understood, gave me a kiss 'for luck'. "Be careful."

"Always." I assured her.

Dagobah's no garden planet I'd called it a slimy mudhole when I landed, and a few months residence had done nothing to alter that first impressim. In addition to be dark and dank it was also full of voracious life forms. A dangerous place - but not to me. At least not this area.

I knew where the quicksand pools were and the trapfalls and predators' lairs and other hazards and threaded my way easily among them. Yoda's house looked like any other mudheap except for the yellow light streaming from window and open door.

My Master was standing on the sill waiting for me. He'd changed in the scant year since I'd left him. He looked smaller, more withered

and frail. I tried to hide my shock as I knelt to greet him.

"Expecting you I have been." he announced. "Hungry are you?"

"Uh - no, thanks, Master." I'd have to be three days starving before I'd eat rootleaf stew!

"Come in, come in. Darkness falls, chilly it grows."

I crawled through the little round door and tucked myself into my usual corner. Master Yoda took the kettle off the fire then turned and made his slow, effortful way towards his bedplace.

Suddenly he directed a sharp glance at me. "That face you make, look I so old to young eyes?"

I hurriedly rearranged my expression. "No...of course not." But there's not much point in lying to a Jedi Master. He saw right through me of course.

"I do," he corrected, almost gleefully, "yes I do. Sick have I become. Old and weak." he stopped to shake a finger at me. "When nine hundred years old you reach, look as good you will not! Hmmm?" he chuckled at his little joke and I tried to smile dutifully as he settled himself on his bed, near me.

"Soon I will rest. Yes, forever sleep. Earned it I have." He sounded as if he welcomed the prospect.

"Master Yoda, you can't die." I pleaded.

"Strong am I with the Force." he replied. "But not that strong! Twilight is upon me and soon night must fall." He was having trouble with his blanket, I reached over to help him. "That is the way of things....the way of the Force."

I knew he was right - "But I need your help. I've come back to complete the training." It had certainly taken me long enough.

He shook his head. "No more training do you require. Already know you that which you need."

I started to protest - then I realized Yoda was speaking the truth. 'Follow your feelings and trust in the Force.' That was the essence of the Way, and I'd learned to do both. There was nothing more for Yoda to teach me. "Then I am a Jedi." I whispered. I'd thought It would feel different somehow. I'd be stronger, surer of myself.

Yoda made a snorting noise, a laugh? "Not yet. One thing remains." He opened his eyes to peer up at me. "Vader, you must confront Vader. Only then a Jedi will you be."

Yes, of course, the Trial. Vader was my final test. But who was he? Now was the time to ask but it took me a few moments to screw up the nerve.

"Master Yoda....is Darth Vader my father?" There! it was said.

To my astonishment he tried to evade answering. He turned away from me muttering as if to himself, "Mmmmm....rest I need. Yes...rest."

I pressed him. "Yoda, I must know."

There was a long pause. Then finally, wearily, he said; "Your father he is."

I knew it...I knew it. Oh, Ben how could you?

"Told you he did?"

"Yes." I whispered, still coming to terms with it. My long lost father, my worst enemy...

"Unexpected this is." said Yoda. "and unfortunate."

"Unfortunate that I know the truth?" I flared. They'd lied to me both of them, Ben and Yoda too.

He turned laboriously back to face me. "No...Unfortunate that you rushed to face him....that incomplete was your training. That not ready for the burden were you."

He was right. I hadn't been ready for such a devastating truth. I could understand my masters choosing not to tell me Darth Vader was my father. But Ben had gone farther than that, he'd lied and told me Vader had killed my father.

I'd known for a long time now that going to Bespin had been a mistake. Not only had I failed to be any help at all to Han and Leia. I'd very nearly been lost myself. If Leia hadn't rescued me.... "I'm sorry."

Yoda's eyes were fixed on me, wide and intent. "Remember a Jedi's strength flows from the Force. But beware. Anger, fear, aggression. The

Dark Side are they. Once you start down that path forever will it dominate your destiny."

Abruptly I realized I'd been flirting with the Dark Side on Tatooine. I'd wanted to destroy Jabba, enjoyed doing it. Anger, vengeance had colored my actions.

"Luke...Luke..." My Master's voice was very weak. I'd pushed him beyond the little strength he had left. He struggled to get out what he must say. I leaned in closer to hear it.

"Do not...do not underestimate the power of the Emperor or suffer your father's fate you will."

Where had Father gone wrong, what was his mistake? Too late now to ask.

"When I am gone the last of the Jedi will you be."

The shock went through me like a blaster charge. Followed by a wave of grief. Dai-Men... Chani... Jayce...all gone?

"Luke," Yoda's voice was little more than a thread of breath now. "the Force runs strong in your family. Pass on what you have learned."

Pass it on to who - Han? Somehow I couldn't see him accepting me as his Master.

"Luke....There is another Sky...walker."

What? His eyes sank closed, he seemed to crumple into the pillow. I felt him go - leaving an empty husk that faded away seconds later.

I was alone. All alone. Eventually I made myself move. Damped down the fire and crawled out of the little house for the last time. There was no reason to come back here. Not ever.

Artoo had elected to pass the time by making some minor adjustments to the sensor systems. He's always tinkering, a real perfectionist my little droid. I looked back in time to see the fire flicker out in Yoda's empty house. Then crouched down to inspect Atroo's work. But I had no heart for it - or anything else.

"I can't do it, Artoo, I can't go on alone."

And a familiar voice, one I hadn't heard for over a year, said; "Yoda will always be with you."

I looked up and there he was, a shimmery blue apparition working his way towards me through the undergrowth.

"Obi-Wan!" that was his real name, But it felt strange in my mouth. I'd never known Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Master and General of the Republic. To me he'd been 'Old Ben', the crazy desert hermit who told strange and wonderful stories. But now I felt as if I'd never really known him at all. He'd lied to me. I could hardly believe he'd do such a thing - but he had.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I demanded, ducking under my ship's wing and going to meet him. "You told me Vader betrayed and murdered my father."

He met the accusation squarely, luminous eyes steady on mine. "Your father was seduced by the Dark Side of the Force. He ceased to be Anakin Skywalker and became Darth Vader. When that happened the good man who was your father was destroyed. So what I told you was true - from a certain point of view."

He had to be kidding. "A certain point of view!" I repeated incredulous.

"Luke, you're going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view."

A man's either dead or he isn't. It's not a matter of opinion! I watched Ben seat himself on a fallen trunk. I didn't want to fight with him. He was all I had left... But he'd lied, betrayed me....

"Anakin was a good friend." the sadness underlying the words disarmed me. I let go of my anger and sat down beside him.

"When I first knew him your father was already a great pilot. But I was amazed at how strongly the Force was with him. I took it upon myself to train him as a Jedi. I thought I could instruct him just as well as Yoda." a defeated sigh. "I was wrong."

That wasn't quite the way Dai-Men had told it. According to him Yoda'd wanted no part of training my father and Ben had taken him on in obedience to his own Master's dying wish. Ben made it sound like it had all been his own idea. More 'point of view'?

"There is still good in him." I knew there was, I'd felt it on Bespin.

Ben disagreed. "He's more machine now than man, twisted and evil." How bitter he sounded. But Father had betrayed the Jedi. Killed them...killed Ben....

I knew what he and Yoda wanted me to do. "I can't do it, Ben."

"You cannot escape your destiny." He told me. "You must face Darth Vader again."

"I can't kill my own father!" How could that be right? How could the Force want it?

"Then the Emperor has already won." Ben's shoulders slumped in defeat. "You were our last hope."

That wasn't true, it couldn't be. "Yoda spoke of another."

Then he stunned me. "The other he spoke of was your twin sister."

Sister??!! "But I have no sister."

He almost smiled. "To protect you both from the Emperor, you were hidden from your father when you were born."

It was crazy, like something out of a fairy tale, and yet...Growing up I'd had this strange feeling part of me was missing. Somebody who

should have been in my life but wasn't, like my parents...

"The Emperor knew, as did I, if Anakin were to have any offspring they would be a threat to him." Ben explained. "That is the reason why your sister remains safely anonymous.

The feeling of loss had stayed with me for years, until I met....."Leia! Leia's my sister!"

Ben nodded. "Your insight serves you well." he said, then warned; "Bury your feelings deep down, Luke. They do you credit but they could be made to serve the Emperor."

I didn't feel very insightful. My own twin sister and I'd never guessed. Had in fact mistaken my feelings for something quite different....or had I? I hadn't been a very insistent suitor. Maybe I had known, deep down, all along.

"When your father left he didn't know your mother was pregnant." Ben continued. "Amidala and I knew he would find out eventually but we wanted to keep you both safely hidden for as long as possible. So I took you to Tatooine to live with my brother Owen."

Uncle Owen. All he'd ever wanted was to keep me safe and I hadn't understood, had resented him for it.

"And your mother took Leia to live as the daughter of Bail Organa, Prince-Viceroy of Alderaan."

Great. I get stuck out on Tatooine, she gets to grow up a princess.

Ben picked up the thought, smiled. "We planned for the son to follow in his father's footsteps and the daughter to walk her mother's path."

I understood. Mother had opposed the Empire too, on the political level as a Queen and Senator. It was only fair one of her children should carry on her fight.

"So Leia became a princess, an Imperial Senator and a Leader of the Alliance. Your mother would be proud of her, of both of you."

I wished I could remember her. Maybe Leia did.

"The Force is strong in your sister, as it is with all your family." Ben went on. "Soon she must learn to use it as you have."

Of course, the other Skywalker, the one I must teach. But - "We can't let her get involved now, Ben, Vader would destroy her."

"There is no avoiding the battle." He warned. "You must face and destroy Darth Vader. If you fail your destiny becomes hers."

He was right. I couldn't pass this burden on to Leia, to my little sister. She'd already done so much, lost so much, it wouldn't be fair. I'd have to try, for her sake. "I understand."

Ben leaned forward to lay a hand on my shoulder. To my surprise I felt an actual, physical touch, cool and tingling. "The Force will be with you." he promised, as he had all those years ago. "Always."


	4. Stopover on Panna

It was a long jump back to the Fleet. I had to stop over on Panna to recharge my life support systems.

Returning to my ship I heard Artoo happily bleeping away, I assumed to another droid until a familiar human laugh stopped me in my tracks.

Dai-Men. Yoda'd been wrong, he was alive. I could feel his presence, warm, vibrant and untroubled - so the others had to be all right too. Relief overwhelmed me. I wasn't alone after all.

It took me a few moments to get myself back under control. Then I wiped my eyes and ducked under my X-Wing's nose and there he was in his brown Jedi robe, sitting on a crate listening intently to Artoo's electronic monologue.

"You can understand him without a translator?"

My Master looked up with a smile. "Not every bleep and whistle but I get the gist. You two have been having adventures."

"You could say that." I agreed ruefully, finding myself a seat on another crate. "We finally got Han back at least." I didn't want to talk about that, there were more important things I needed to say.

"Master, Master Yoda's dead." 'still winning prizes for tact, Skwalker!'

Dai-Men nodded, unsurprised. "I know. He will always be with us."

"That's what Ben said."

My Master spread his hands, eyes glinting amusement. "There you are then, who should know better than Obi-Wan?"

I managed a weak smile in response. "I thought you were dead too." Dai-Men raised his eyebrows in mild surprise and I explained. "Yoda told me I was the last of the Jedi, I thought that meant -" I couldn't finish, I didn't have to.

"I see." Master said pensively. "Perhaps he just meant you were the newest or youngest Jedi. Or...there are other possibilities." he smiled at me. "It's a mistake to take a Master too literally, Luke, our words don't always mean what they seem."

"Tell me about it!" I snorted, remembering Ben. "You knew about my father." it wasn't a question. But he nodded confirmation.

"And didn't tell me." that was an accusation.

"You didn't ask."

I opened my mouth to erupt. First 'point of view' now this! He stopped me with an upraised hand.

"It wasn't my place to second guess Yoda and Obi-Wan. But if you had asked I would have told you the truth."

I let out a breath, there was no point in being angry with Dai-Men. "I knew that. Maybe that's why I couldn't ask." I hadn't been ready to hear the truth.

"I have never lied to one of my Padawans." My Master continued seriously. "Withheld or evaded truths when necessary, but never lied."

A fine line, but I understood. Sometimes it was necessary or wise to withhold information. I'd done it myself, another thing I'd learned from

him. But Ben had lied outright!

"Ben lied to me." I said bluntly, still aggrieved. And I'd believed in him, loved him...I still did of course, but I was finding it difficult to forgive that deception.

"Yes. But with a kind of truth." Master pointed out.

"'From a certain point of view.'" I quoted scornfully.

"Don't judge him too harshly, Luke." Dai-Men chided. "You've never had a student, you don't know the pain of losing one." his eyes went out of focus, remembering. "I nearly lost Jayce to the Dark Side. He was able to turn back before it was too late but - I know how Obi-Wan feels."

Jayce? But Yoda'd said there was no turning back...

"He really does think of Anakin as dead and Vader as a completely different being." Master sighed. "I feel that's a fallacy but it may be all that's kept him sane." then he smiled wryly. "And an Obi-Wan Kenobi running amuck with grief and guilt doesn't bear thinking about."

I remembered the pain, the self blame I'd sensed from Ben. "He said it was his fault."

Dai-Men shook his head. "A teacher always feels responsible for his student's failures." he explained. "But if you're thinking Obi-Wan somehow pushed your father to the Dark Side, no, that's not true. The choice - and the blame - are Anakin's alone."

I'd never really believed Ben's self accusation anyway.

"Master, I can't do what Ben and Yoda want me to do. I can't kill my own father."

He gave me a steady, measuring look calm and un-judgmental. "Then what will you do?"

He would ask that. "I'm not sure." I faltered. "If I could talk to him - there's still good in him, if I could reach it -"

"Obi-Wan tried that twenty-four years ago," Dai-Men pointed out, "and failed."

"I know but -"

"Your father has given you little reason to love him." Master continued dispassionately. "He tortured your sister and your friend. used them as bait to trap you and then cut off your hand."

He'd done all that, and more. I should hate him - or since a Jedi doesn't hate at least accept the necessity of his destruction. Why couldn't I?

"He governs the Imperial Fleet by force of terror. Kills officers who fail or even displease him -"

I interrupted. "There is good in him! I felt it when I touched his mind on Bespin. I feel it now."

Dai-Men smiled. "Then follow your feelings and trust in the Force."

I knew he'd say that sooner or later. And he was right - but it was hard, especially since all my Masters said I was wrong. All but one.

"For what it's worth, I agree with you. I too felt Anakin Skywalker still alive within that black armour." my Master shook his head sadly. "We couldn't reach him through all the layers of guilt and anger but perhaps you -"

I interrupted again. "You felt! You've seen him?"

"A few weeks ago."

"I thought you promised Jayce you wouldn't challenge Vader!" In fact I distinctly remembered Jayce telling me so - and warning me our Master could wiggle his way out of any promise.

"I didn't challenge him." Dai-Men said serenely. "We talked to him."

Talk about your fine lines! Then I felt my Master's familiar mental touch and images poured into my mind: A volcanic planet and a black castle moated with lava. Vader, my father, what he'd said, what he'd done and what Dai-Men had done.

"And the sabre fighting?" I sputtered as my Master released me.

He shrugged. "We had to get his attention."

"Jayce is right, you are nuts!" Fine way to talk to a Jedi Master. But nobody could call walking into Darth Vader's private stronghold a prudent move. "And what's this 'we'?" I demanded. "I didn't see anybody with you."

"My father was with me." he replied quietly.

I was confused. "You said your father was dead."

"So is Obi-Wan."

Oh. Right. "Good point." Death was not necessarily the end. Not for a

Jedi.

Master changed the subject. "You're going to join the fleet?"

I nodded. "Something's brewing, I'm not sure what." Leia hadn't explained.

"The Alliance's final throw I think. Win or lose." Master rose, so did I. "The Emperor is building a new Death Star. They say he's going

himself to inspect the work. My guess is the Alliance plans an ambush."

"That would make sense." I looked up at him. "Can they succeed?"

He smiled. "The future is always uncertain Luke."

I rolled my eyes. "I know, concentrate on the moment. Feel the Living Force." Master just smiled, eyes twinkling, not at all offended. And right, as usual.

"I've got to get back." I told him. "I'm still an Alliance officer, maybe I can help."

"I don't doubt it."

"But - what about my father?"

This time I got a straight answer. "He will come to you." It was a chilling thought. "He wants you badly." Dai-Men warned. "And so does the Emperor."

An even scarier thought. "I'll be careful." I promised.

"Be mindful." He corrected, Master isn't much for being careful. He put a hand on my shoulder, just as Ben had. "And trust your instincts. May the Force be with you." Then he turned to go in a swirl of brown robes.

I called after him. "Master!" And he turned back in the shadow of my X-wing's nose. "Where are you going?"

I couldn't see his smile, but I sensed it. "To Coruscant."

"What!" To the central system of the Empire, the Emperor's own stronghold?

"Don't worry," Master sounded amused. "Palpatine won't be there. Or Vader. They will be waiting for you at Endor."

Yes they would. Endor was a trap deliberately set for me. One I had no choice but to walk into. Oh well, at least I could be a diversion for the Rebel Attack.

"But why?" I pleaded. Why must Dai-Men risk his life on Coruscant when the real confrontation would be at Endor?

"To see to something that needs doing." was the cryptic reply. He added reassuringly, "I won't be alone."

"Jayce?"

"And the others."

That made me feel a little better. Okay, a man who can walk in and out of Darth Vader's fortress unscathed can definitely take care of himself. I'd seen Dai-Men in action, I knew how formidable he was but -

"I don't want to lose you too, Master."

"I'll do my best to see you don't." was the gentle reply.

"May the Force be with you." I said with real fervor, and resignation.

Master bowed slightly, accepting the blessing, turned and was gone.

Time for me to go too. "Come on Artoo, let's get back to the Fleet."


	5. The New Mission

The flight deck was deserted. No white suited ground crew tinkering with the ships, no pilots standing around in gossipy groups. Obviously things were happening.

I climbed out of my X-Wing, took off my helmet and looked around. There had to be a Deck Officer on duty at least - somewhere, right behind me as it turned out.

"'Bout time you showed up." It was Denay. We'd met four years ago on Yavin when I was a wet behind the ears pilot and she a very junior ground officer. We'd both come up in the world since.

"I was begining to get worried." she continued. "Princess Leia said you'd just be a few hours behind them."

"I had to stop over on Panna." I explained. "And ran into Master Jinn."

"Ahhhh." her eyebrows arched. "And did he happen to have that pretty little lady Jedi with him?"

I was not blushing. "No, he did not."

"Too bad."

I hastily changed the subject. "Where is everybody?"

"Big briefing in the War Room. You better get a move on, you're supposed to be there."

I started for the door - and was stopped in my tracks by a long, loud squeal of electronic protest.

"Sorry, Artoo." I reached out with the Force lifting him from his socket behind the cockpit and lowering him gently to the deck, bleeping and hooting complaints the whole time. Artoo hates being levitated but hates missing out on the action more.

It wasn't until I turned back to Denay and saw the dropped jaw that I realized what I'd done. Then I did blush. "There haven't been any droid lifts where we've been." I explained awkwardly. "I kind of got into the habit of doing it myself." I was beginning to take my Jedi powers for granted, was that good or bad?

"Pretty handy." she managed, "I don't suppose you could teach me to do that?"

"Probably not." Denay, like many Rebels, was a bit stronger in the Force than most but nowhere near Jedi level.

I arrived outside the War Room just in time to hear General Madine say, "General Solo, is your strike team assembled?"

Naw, it couldn't be.

But it was. "Uh, my team's ready. I don't have a command crew for the shuttle."

A roar from Chewy: "What am I, Banta Poodoo?"

"It's going to be rough, pal." Han apologized. "I didn't want to speak for you."

"You think I'm going to let you go off and get yourself killed without me? What are partners for?"

Han laughed. "That's one!"

Leia's voice, both pleased and proud. "Uh, me in."

A cue if ever I heard one. I stepped through the open door. "I'm with you too!" And was greeted by a wave of excitement and relief. Even Mon

Mothma and the Admiral seemed reassured by the presence of a lone Jedi. It was frightening... the responsibility.

Leia - my sister - flung herself into my arms then pulled back, smile fading into a little frown. "What is it?"

I was tempted to tell her, but the middle of a crowd wasn't the place to go into a lot of complicated - and painful - family history. "Ask me again sometime."

"Luke." Han was sensing things too, I could tell, and wasn't sure what to make of them. Which made us even. I didn't quite know what to make of him either.

"Hi Han....Chewy." I grinned at Lando. "General Calrissian, somehow that doesn't surprise me. But General Solo sure did! what got into you, Han?"

He shrugged, embarrassed. "I guess all this heroism is contagious."

I smiled at the excuse. I'd known, and Ben had known, almost from the beginning that Han was a much better man than he gave himself credit for being. I wondered how long it was going to take him to admit it to himself.

"I wish you'd pack a blaster as well as that antique of yours." Han complained as we entered the flight deck side by side. It sure wasn't

deserted now, flight crews, pilots and droids were everywhere and the noise and confusion were formidable.

"A blaster would just get in my way." I answered. "You know it would." On the leg back from Panna I'd suddenly realized who - or rather what - Han had to be: Hundreds of children had lived in the Old Temple, training to become Jedi. Master had told me how the few surviving knights had rescued them from the Emperor and hid them in the Outer Rim Territories. And Han was just the right age to have been one of those children.

"I don't know what you're talking about, kid." he blustered.

"Yes you do." We'd both been hidden away by the Jedi to protect us. The difference was Han had always known he was hiding and I hadn't, not until four years ago. I stopped him and made him look at me. "You gave yourself away on Tatooine." That shook him, I could see it - and feel it too. "It's all right, Han, you can trust me. I'm a Jedi too."

"I - of course I trust you, Luke." he faltered, then took a deep breath. "I don't want to get into this now."

He was right. This wasn't the time. I nodded. "Later then." I thought of Leia. "We'll have a long talk once this is over." All three of us.

"Sure, whatever you say, kid." Han's relief was palpable, even without the Force. "Look, I gotta have a word with Lando, see you at the shuttle."

The strike team was loading their equipment. And Wedge was waiting for me at the foot of the ramp. "I sure wish you were the one leading this mission."

"Don't worry," I assured him. "I've seen Lando fly. He's well up to Rogue standards."

"Yeah, but it was you who blew the first Death Star." he said.

"I couldn't have done it if you and Biggs hadn't bought me the time." I reminded him. "You don't need me as a luck piece, Wedge."

He sighed. "It's just....I've got a bad feeling about this mission."

"So do I." I heard myself agree. Way to go, Skywalker, that'll really pick up morale.

It sure wasn't what Wedge wanted to hear. "Damn. I hoped it was just me, nerves."

"Maybe we both have nerves." he looked at me in astonishment and I

gave him a shrug and a smile. "Jedi aren't made of stone you know."

I watched him assimilate that and realize maybe I hadn't changed as much as he'd thought. "You watch yourself down there, Boss."

"I will. May the Force be with you." and with us all.

Han came into the cockpit just as Chewy and I finished bringing up the flight systems. The strike team leader had given me a camouflage poncho to go over my black suit. One of these days I was going to have to see about getting some proper Jedi robes. But Chani'd said you were supposed to make them yourself and I didn't sew.

"You got her warmed?" Han asked.

"Yeah, she's coming up." She was a nice little ship - for all she was Imperial make.

Chewy would have agreed only with the little. "Everything's too small!" he complained to his partner. "I bump my head on that overhead display one more time it's coming out the hard way!"

"I don't think the Empire had Wookiees in mind when they designed her, Chewy." That was a safe bet. Han settled into the pilot's seat and fell into a brown study looking out the port at the Falcon.

Leia came in from the hold. Even camouflage looks good on my little sister. She put a hand on Han's shoulder startling him. "Hey, are you awake?"

"Yeah." he glanced up at her than back at the Falcon. "I just got a funny feeling. Like I'm not going to see her again."

"What?" Chewy barked, looking in alarm from his partner to their ship.

I hoped Han's feeling was wrong. It would just about break both their hearts to lose the Falcon.

"Come on, General," Leia said softly, sympathetic but firmly calling him back to the job at hand. "let's move."

Once again I sensed Han changing focus, Jedi fashion, putting aside fears and anxieties to concentrate on the moment. "Right. Chewy, let's see what this piece of junk can do. Ready everybody?"

I took my seat behind Chewy. "All set."

Behind me I heard Threepio tell Artoo, "Here we go again."

We came out of hyper just light minutes away from Endor's Green Moon. Space was swarming with TIEs, Destroyers, support ships and a gigantic command ship. I guess I should have expected that. This was after all a trap and here I was walking, or rather flying, right into it.

Like Raj said: 'You don't have to be crazy to be a Jedi, but it helps.'

"If they don't go for this, we're gonna have to get outta here pretty quick, Chewy." Han warned.

"You can say that again!"

The radio acknowledged our presence and requested identification.

"Shuttle Tydirium," Han responded, "requesting deactivation of the deflector shield."

A pause, then; "Shuttle Tydirium, transmit the clearance code for shield passage."

Han: "Transmission commencing."

"Now we find out if that code is worth the price we paid." Leia said grimly.

"It'll work." Han assured her, "It'll work." but there was no conviction in his voice.

He was uneasy too, I could feel it. And as the Super Star Destroyer got closer I felt something else; a familiar dark presence with a buried spark of light, my father. "Vader's on that ship."

"Now don't get jittery, Luke. There are a lot of command ships." Han had to know how unlikely it was to sense, much less identify, another's

Force presence at such long range - but he also had to be picking up, second hand, some of what I was feeling. "Keep your distance though, Chewy, but don't look like you're trying to keep your distance."

"And exactly how am I supposed to do that?"

"I don't know. Fly casual."

"Fly casual?"

I'd known Father would be here but I sure hadn't expected to sense him so strongly, or at such a distance. Our shared blood and those moments in rapport off Bespin had created a much more powerful bond than I'd expected. And if I could sense him, then he must be able to sense me...

"Shuttle Tydirium, what is your cargo and destination?"

Questions. Not a good sign. "Parts and technical crew for the forest moon." Han replied, his official, slightly bored toned belied by the tension on his face.

How could I have been so stupid? "I'm endangering the mission, I shouldn't have come."

"It's your imagination, kid." Han said desperately, knowing it wasn't. "Come on. Let's keep a little optimism here."

I tried to think. Whatever happened Leia must not fall into Father's hands, she was our last hope.

"They're not going for it, Chewy." Han began, finally facing facts - and the radio crackled to life.

"Shuttle Tydirium, deactivation of the shield will commence immediately. Follow your present course."

"Okay! I told you it was gonna work." Han beamed. "No problem."

Big problem. What was Father up to? He knew I was on this ship and would be on the Moon. He must intend to confront me there, away from the Emperor. Good, if I could talk to him alone, away from his Master's influence....but my presence was still a danger to Han, Leia and the mission. I'd have to get well clear of them as soon as possible.


	6. The Green Moon

Endor was a forest moon, the land mass completely covered by gigantic, primeval trees. They loomed around us like massive brown towers, the leaf canopy far above tinting the sunlight green. The going was easy, there was very little underbrush compared to Dagobah, and the air had a spicy, woodsy smell that was oddly soothing.

Artoo whistled. "Pretty!" Threepio said indignantly. "I don't think it's pretty here at all. It's dangerous!"

"You're both right." I said softly. "Now be quiet."

We took our bearings and moved out; Han, Leia, Chewy and me at point, the strike team trailing behind and my two droids bringing up the rear. We didn't get far before running across a pair of Imperial scouts poking around a little dell right in our path.

"Should we try and go around?" Leia whispered.

"It'll take time." I answered. And time was something we didn't have a lot of.

"This whole party will be for nothing if they see us." said Han, then the General made up his mind. "Chewy and I will take care of this. You stay here."

I had a vivid flashback to the Death Star and a certain pair of cocky smugglers blasting everything in sight. "Quietly!" I warned. "There might be more of them." It was hard to tell, stormtroopers tend to be strangely weak in the force and difficult to sense. I had occasionally wondered if they started out that way or if it was something the Emperor did to them.

Han gave us his best roguish grin. "Hey....it's me."

Why did he think we were worried? Leia and I exchanged a commiserating look as Han and his big hairy shadow snuck away through the bushes.

It wasn't really Han's fault that he stepped on that twig - alerting the scouts - and it wouldn't have mattered if there hadn't been two more of them lurking nearby mounted on speeder bikes. They took off and Leia threw herself onto the remaining bike to chase after them - I just managed to jump on behind her before she took off.

"Quick! Jam their comlink, center switch." I gasped, then hung on for dear life.

No question but my kid sister was a chip off our family block. She wove expertly through trees, treefall and underbrush quickly overtaking our quarry.

"Move closer!" I ordered. She gunned the engine and the distance closed. "Get alongside that one." She did, so close the two bikes scraped vanes. Damn but she was good! I'd have to get her into a fighter some time and see what she could do.

I jumped from the back of my sister's bike to the scout's and threw him off - right into a big tree - then got control of the bike and sped on side by side with Leia after the second guy. Then we flashed past another pair of Imperial scouts - how many of these guys were there? - and they took off after us, opening fire. A glancing bolt rocked my bike. These things were armed? How could I have missed that?

"Keep on that one! I shouted to Leia. "I'll take these two."

I slammed on the brakes, letting the two Imps whiz past me, then shifted back to forward mode and started shooting. I got one quickly enough but the other presented a bit of a challenge. He was a pretty good pilot too; he managed to jam my vanes when I came alongside and propel my bike right into a tree. I jumped free and when he circled around to finish me warded off his fire with my lightsabre than slashed off his control vanes and sent him tumbling into one of the ever present. trees.

It was a good thing Endor was so damp or all these exploding bikes might have started a major forest fire. I caught my breath, deactivated my sabre, and headed back to where I'd left General Solo and his strike force.

I found Han sitting morosely under a tree, he started up at the sight of me. "Luke! Where's Leia?"

My heart sank. "She didn't come back?"

"I thought she was with you!"

"We got separated."

We looked at each other. "We'd better go look for her." I said.

Han turned to his lieutenant. "Take the squad ahead. We'll meet at the shield generator at oh three hundred."

I didn't dare reach out with the Force to find Leia, not with our father lurking nearby. I could feel his presence faintly at the back of my mind and I must not lead him to her. Whatever happened to me Leia had to be kept out of Father's hands. "Come on, Artoo. We'll need your scanners."

"Don't worry, Master Luke, we know what to do." Threepio assured me, adding acerbicly to his counterpart; "And you said it was 'pretty' here!"

Artoo tracked the speeder exhausts to two wrecked bikes. I found Leia's helmet nearby. She was all right - she had to be all right. I'd feel it if she were wounded and I'd have felt her die. She had to be alive and safe - but where?

"Luke! Luke!"

I ran ahead to join the others by yet another charred wreck. Han looked the way I felt - sick with worry.

"Oh, Master Luke." Threepio was upset too - you could hear it in his voice.

"There are two more wrecked speeders back there. And I found this." I tossed the helmet to Han and he clutched it like a talisman.

"I'm afraid Artoo's sensors can find no trace of Princess Leia." Threepio told us apologetically.

Han looked at me. "I hope she's all right."

I looked steadily back. 'She is, you know she is.' I said silently through the Force. 'We'd have felt it if anything had happen to her.'

He didn't pretend not to hear but I was surprised when he answered in the same manner. 'I don't dare reach out to find her. I can feel something watching, listening.'

'It's Vader.' I told him. 'He senses my presence, but not yours or Leia's, you're not bonded to him as I am.'

"But he'll hear me if I call.' Han's face had a remote, focused look I'd never seen there before. Even his sense was different; serene and centered - like a Jedi.

'Probably.' I said, staring fascinated at my friend. It was like I was looking at another man, a shiver ran down my spine, the man the Jedi had been training him to become - not the cocky rogue he'd turned himself into.

Then Chewbacca jerked us out of our communication with an excited bark and instantly Han was back to being the man I'd always known; calling after his partner as Chewy plunged excitedly into a stand of dense brush.

We followed him to a little clearing with a dead animal of some kind impaled on a stake in the middle of it. It was obviously bait for a trap. Obvious that is to anybody but a spacer who'd probably never hunted in his life.

"I don't get it." Han said puzzled. Then he shrugged. "Neh, it's just a dead animal, Chewy."

Then Chewy, who should have known better, reached for the meat. I dove for him; "Chewy, wait! don't -" but I was too late. The trap sprung and the lot of us; men, Wookiee and droids alike, were swept up into a net and hoisted high in the air where we spun slowly.

"Nice work. Great Chewy, always thinking with your stomach!" Han said acidly.

"I'm sorry alright! I couldn't resist - you know how I hate that concentrated dreck

you humans call food!"

Terrific. See the mighty Jedi knight on a mission to save the universe from the Dark Side swinging in a game trap! Sometimes I think the Force has a sense of humor - a low one. "Will you take it easy." I said to the bickering partners. "Let's just figure out a way to get out of this thing." I struggled to free an arm - failed. "Han, can you reach my lightsabre?"

"Yeah, sure." the net jounced as Han wriggled around trying to work a hand up to my belt.

Suddenly Threepio said: "Artoo, I'm not sure that's such a good idea. It's a very long dro-o-op!" On the word the net gave way and we fell heavily into the scrub below.

I sat up, rubbing the back of my head which had impacted painfully with a root, and saw that we were surrounded by spear wielding natives. I was less impressed by this than I should have been since they were only three feet high, chubby and covered with fur, with big liquid eyes and round ears on top of their heads.

They were adorable. They were also - I realized a second later - allies. Mentally I apologized to the Force. As usual It had known exactly what it was doing when It guided us to this place. Even if It had little regard for a Jedi's dignity.

Han too had been grinning at the cute little guys, until one poked a spear in his face. He shoved it aside. "Hey! Point that thing someplace else."

A furry warrior barked an order and the spear returned to its former position. Han grabbed at it and reached for his blaster.

"Han, don't. It'll be all right."

He didn't look like he believed me but he followed my lead, tamely giving up his pistol, though not without a dark glower in my direction. Chewy was even more reluctant, getting into a tug-a-war with one of the little warriors that reminded me absurdly of Yoda and Artoo's fight over my lamp. "Chewy, give them your crossbow." He growled but obeyed.

Threepio sat up. "Oh my head." then he saw our company. "Oh my goodness!"

But his astonishment was as nothing compared to that of our captors. A universal gasp arose, followed by a few seconds of excited chatter. Then they all started chanting and bowing rhythmically in Threepio's direction. Though understandably taken aback my droid addressed them in growls similar to the ones they had been using. There was another gasp then most resumed their bowing and chanting while a few conversed softly together.

"Do you understand anything they're saying?" I asked.

"Oh yes, Master Luke!" Threepio said happily. "I am fluent in more than six million forms of communication."

Like I could forget.

"What are you telling them?" Han demanded.

"Hello, I think...." Threepio's confidence wavered and he sounded almost apologetic as he continued. "I could be mistaken. They're using a very primitive dialect. But I do believe they think I'm some sort of god."

I had trouble keeping a straight face at that - Han didn't even try. "Well why don't you use your divine influence and get us out of this."

Threepio drew himself up. "I beg your pardon, General Solo, but that just wouldn't be proper."

"Proper?" Han echoed incredulously.

"It's against my programming to impersonate a deity." Threepio said primly.

I couldn't really blame Han for going for him - Threepio can be infuriating - but it was a mistake. Instantly the cuddly warriors sprang to the defense of their 'god'. Surrounded by bristling spears Han backed off, raising his hands placatingly. "My mistake. He's an old friend of mine."


	7. The Ewoks

The 'godly' Cee Threepio was carried in state on a sort of throne made quickly and deftly from branches and twigs and lashed together with vines. The rest of us - even Artoo Detoo - were tied to poles like game animals being born home from the hunt. My Jedi dignity was really taking a beating this mission - and my wrists and ankles too.

I could hear Han cursing softly and continuously - a virtuoso performance in at least ten languages - ahead of me and Chewbacca growling counterpoint behind. Artoo too kept letting out indignant bleeps and squeals as he bounced along, lashed to a crude pallet, carried on our furry little captor's shoulders.

We ascended into the tree canopy by way of a series of steep ramps winding around the trunks. Every now and then our captors would pause to sound horns announcing their return. We crossed a shaking, swaying wood and rope bridge and entered a cozy miniature village with mud and twig huts clinging to the sides of the great trees and clustered around a series of big wooden platforms - their town square.

Threepio's throne was placed respectfully on an upper level. My pole, Chewy's and Artoo's pallet were leaned against one of the giant tree trunks. But Han's pole was laid crosswise on two stakes above a sort of pit.

Han didn't like it one bit - and I couldn't blame him. "I have a bad feeling about this."

Oddly enough I didn't. In spite of our humiliating and possibly dangerous situation I was convinced that we were in the place we were meant to be. These little folk were going to be important to us. But first we'd have to convince them we were people not food animals - and that might not be easy. Apparently being in the company of a god didn't win us any privileges.

A brown and cream striped male, his headdress ominously adorned with the skull of some kind of giant raptor, came out of the largest hut. He held a long staff decorated with feathers and bits of bone in one hand and my lightsabre in the other. He paused to give us all a long, cool, considering look. Our eyes met briefly and mine narrowed. This I realized was the spiritual leader of these people - and he didn't at all appreciate competition from a new found god!

He went to Threepio and made a short bow. They had a brief conversation. My protocol droid reacted with dismay. "Oh dear!"

Han hauled himself up so he could look over his pole at Threepio. "What did he say?"

"I'm rather embarrassed, General Solo, but it appears you are to be the main course at a banquet in my honor."

Han was speechless - but his look spoke volumes. Chewy uttered an alarmed howl and struggled against his bonds. And a line of our little friends calmly began pass wood from hand to hand to pile it under Han as others beat on drums.

Roast Han alive and fully dressed yet? I didn't think so. I looked at the shaman, once again our eyes met and I knew; it was a ploy intended to frighten Threepio into denying his divine status. But if he did what would happen to us?

Suddenly another figure, slimmer and much taller than the natives, emerged from the big hut. It was my sister, with her hair around her shoulders wearing a dress of skins instead of her uniform. Clearly our furry hosts had been much more hospitable towards her - but then she's a lot prettier than Han or me, and especially Chewy!

"Leia!" I said.

Han, despite his situation brightened. "Leia!"

"Leia!" Chewbacca growled.

Artoo vented an excited whistle and Threepio joyously exclaimed, "Your Royal Highness!"

Leia tried to come to us, only to be blocked by furry bodies and crossed spears. "But these are my friends." she told the little folk around her, then turned to our interpreter. "Threepio, tell them they must be set free."

Ever the princess, my sister, expecting everybody to fall in line and follow her orders. Funny thing is more often than not they do. But not this time. The shaman wasn't about to give up his barbecue.

More wood was piled under Han and he gave Threepio another of his dirty looks. "Somehow I get the feeling that didn't help us very much."

Chewy howled again and Leia began to look alarmed. It was high time I took a hand. "Threepio. Tell them if they don't do as you wish, you'll become angry and use your magic."

Everybody looked at me. Han, Leia and Chewy instantly realized what I intended but Threepio, Force bless him, was slower on the uptake.

"But, Master Luke, what magic? I couldn't possibly -"

"Just tell them!" that droid would try the patience of a full Jedi Master - much less a half trained Padawan.

He told them - and he made a good thing of it too miming some sort of explosion with his hands and ending on a rising 'you'll be sorry' inflection. The majority of our furry friends were impressed - but not the shaman. He barked out an order and a couple hesitant furballs brought flaming torches over to Han's barbecue pit. He tried to blow them out.

I closed my eyes and ears, shutting out everything but the Force. Ben and Yoda had described It as a medium through which all living things moved, creating eddies and currents as it acted on us and reacted to us. But my perception was different.

For me the Force was a vast presence that both spoke to me, and heard me. It acted through me but It also let me draw on It. According to Dai-Men that difference in perception was the essential difference between Living Force Jedi, like him and me, and the other kind. It wasn't that we were right and they were wrong - just that we'd connected to a different aspect of the Force.

It was the Living Force I drew on now, focusing Its energy through me - like sunlight through a magnifying glass - and directed it at Threepio upon his throne.

"You see, Master Luke, they didn't believe me." my droid was whining - unaware that he was slowly rising into the air. "Just as I said they wouldn't."

The little folk began to scream and run. An eddy of fur swept my sister back against the big hut wall as they fled for the shelter of their homes. Suddenly Threepio realized what was going on. Of course he panicked.

"What's-whe-what's happening? Oh dear! Oh!

I moved him slowly and regally across the square, pivoting the throne so he could cow the all ready terrified furballs with his fiery glance. Fortunately they couldn't understand his frightened cries: "Put me down! He-e-elp! Somebody help! Master Luke! Artoo, Artoo, quickly! Do something, somebody! Oh! Ohhhhh!"

The little ones' terror and my friends' amazement and awe washed over and through me without disturbing my focus. I was aware of the furball that cut me free: Of Artoo's furious bleeping as he chased and zapped the dark striped warrior who'd captured us: Of Han rushing to embrace Leia: But my focus remained on Cee Threepio as I directed his throne back to its original position and gently set it down.

"Oh, oh, oh, oh. Thank goodness!" he sputtered, collapsing in relief.

I went to hug my sister, then gave my exhausted droid a smile. "Thanks, Threepio."

"I never knew I had it in me." he said weakly.

"This is Chief Chirpa." Leia said, introducing a stout gray male whose hood was richly decorated with animal teeth and feathers. She frowned at us. "What did you do to them?"

"Nothing." Han answered defensively, "Nothing at all. Did we Luke."

I shrugged.

Leia's frown deepened. "Well you must have offended them somehow. They've been very friendly to me."

Han smirked. "You're a lot prettier than we are."

'Hmmm." said Leia, eyeing us.

The dressed carcass of some large animal was put over the barbecue pit and the fire lit. Little furry females bustled about passing out bowls, spreading mats and setting big wooden platters of stewed and mashed vegetables and fruit on them. We were all given seats on the upper platform, next to Threepio's throne. Chief Chirpa and the shaman - whose name was Logray - sat with us and I set out to win the latter over.

"Threepio, tell them you are not a god."

Han looked a little alarmed. "Is that a good idea, Luke?"

"Yes. Now."

Logray's pleased response confirmed my judgment.

"Then who did the magic?" Threepio translated.

"The power which I serve." I answered. "Logray knows of what I speak."

The little fellow nodded. I'd felt the Force was strong in him, and guessed he had some knowledge of how to draw on it.

"He says he's very sorry for threatening us but he thought we must be in league with the hard shelled ones as we look so much like them." Threepio translated.

"We understand." I said. "The hard shelled ones are our enemies too. We have come here to fight them."

That went over real well with both Logray and Chirpa.

"What happened to you?" Han asked Leia. "Luke and I were worried sick."

"Artoo and myself as well." put in Threepio.

"And me!" roared Chewy taking a big joint of meat out of the hands of a server. She looked decidedly startled, then turned around and went back to the barbecue pit for more.

Leia shrugged, as if a little embarrassed. "The scout I was after blasted my bike with a handgun when I got alongside him. Don't worry - he apparently crashed himself right after. I saw the wreckage."

"So did we." Han said grimly.

The server came back and moved down our row, allowing each of us to tear some meat from the new joint.

"I was knocked cold for a bit." Leia continued. "And when I woke up Wicket was poking me with his spear," she paused to smile at a young warrior on the level below us. He grinned back. "We were just making friends when we were surprised by another pair of scouts. We took care of them together and then he brought me here."

Chief Chirpa dipped handfuls of vegetables and fruit from the platters laid out before us and put them in his bowl. We promptly followed suit.

Han wiped his fingers on his vest and frowned. "These woods are crawling with Imps. They can't be looking for us - can they?" he looked questioningly at me.

I shook my head. "No." Father knew I'd come to him. "I'd guess it's our little friends the Imps are after. They seem to have made their presence felt. We should ask for their help."

Han choked on his mouthful of mashed fruit. "You're kidding!"

"Luke, we can't." Leia said in real dismay. "Look at them - they wouldn't stand a chance against stormtroopers."

"Wouldn't they?" I asked quietly. "Didn't you say you and your friend Wicket took out the last set of scouts?"

She bit her lip. Then, seeing Logray's curious look, took a quick bite out of her hunk of meat to cover up her reaction.

"It's their choice, Leia, but I feel we should ask." I continued. "There are no coincidences. The Force brought us together for a reason."

She swallowed her mouthful and gave in, but not happily: " Well, all right. I guess you know what you're doing, Luke."

Han stared at her incredulously, then past her at me. I gave him a half grin and shrug. Leia had learned to trust my 'feelings' - but where she got the idea I knew what I was doing I don't know. I just follow the Force - and the Force isn't given to explaining Itself.

The feast lasted well into the night. Afterwards we followed Chief Chirpa and Logray into the big hut, followed by most of the village; males, females and even cubs. Our little friends called themselves Ewoks, and the Imperials - as usual - had quickly given them good reason to hate the 'hard shelled' invaders of their world. They had retaliated by trapping and killing troopers who strayed from the generator installation which went a long way towards explaining all those heavily armed scouts - and why they always came in pairs.

Long ago, when we first met, Threepio had told me he was no good at telling stories. Well either he'd been being modest or he'd learned a thing or two since because he had the Ewoks hanging on every word of his short history of the Rebellion, complete with appropriate sound effects.

At one point Artoo interrupted with a series of sharp, excited bleeps. His counterpart gave him an annoyed look. "Yes, Artoo, I was just coming to that." and continued with an account of the Battle of Hoth, the Falcon's escape to Cloud City, Vader's appearance and Han's capture and rescue, ending with a brief explanation of why we were on Endor.

Threepio finished his story. Logray and Chirpa conferred quietly, with several other Ewoks - both male and female - putting in their two credits worth. Finally Logray straightened up and made a formal announcement. The Ewoks chirped excitedly and one began pounding a drum. Han and Leia and even Chewy all but disappeared into the embraces of affectionate furballs.

"We are now part of the tribe." Threepio announced triumphantly.

"Just what I always wanted." Han muttered, trying to disentangle himself from a particularly determined Ewok who refused to let go of his leg.

I grinned a little, but my heart was heavy. My feelings told me it was time for me to leave - but first I needed to have a few private words with Leia.


	8. Father

The walkways connecting the huts clustered on outlying trees to the village square were empty. Firelight glowed in a few of the more distant houses but most of the village was apparently packed into the Chief's hut behind me.

I looked up at the Death star, hanging overhead like an evil moon, but I didn't think about the Emperor or even my coming confrontation with Father. Instead I tried one more time to remember something - anything - about my mother. I had Dai-Men's stories and the image of her he'd placed in my mind, but nothing of my own. I'd never seen my mother, never touched her. I'd been taken from her the moment I was born. It was Ben's arms that had received me, not Mother's, and he'd carried me quickly out of the birthing room before her labor was finished.

I couldn't blame them. I knew they'd only done what they had to do to keep us all safe. So Ben had whisked me off to Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru on Tatooine, and Mother had taken Leia to Alderaan to give her up to the Organas. But she must have stayed for a little while afterwards for my sister had told me once that she could remember her real mother.

"Luke, what's wrong." I turned. Leia had followed me outside, as I'd known she would. She stood there, illuminated by a mix of moon and firelight, looking at me in concern.

"Leia... do you remember your mother, your real mother?"

She blinked, taken aback by the unexpected question, seemingly so remote from our immediate and urgent concerns. "Just a little bit, she died when I was very young."

"What do you remember?" I pressed.

"Just ... images really. Feelings." she faltered, her surprise growing.

"Tell me."

Bewildered but willing to humor me she struggled to dredge up the memories. "She was very beautiful. Kind, but ... sad."

Reaching out with the Force I shared the images in her mind; the lovely face Dai-Men had shown me soft with tenderness; dark eyes, like Leia's, filled with a sorrow I prayed my sister would never know; a husky voice singing a lullaby; a gentle hand stroking an infant Leia's hair...

"Why are you asking me this?" she demanded, breaking the spell.

I looked away, trying to hide my emotion. "I have no memory of my mother. I never knew her."

"Luke, tell me. What's troubling you?" It was more a command than a request, the princess coming to the fore again, but I could feel her concern as if it were my own.

There was so much to say and so little time left to say it. "Vader's here...now, on this moon."

Those lovely eyes, our mother's eyes, widened in fear. "How do you know?"

"I felt his presence." I said flatly. "He's come for me. He can feel when I'm near. That's why I have to go. As long as I stay, I'm endangering you, the group and our mission here. I have to face him."

Leia's concern was turning to alarm. "Why?"

I just said it. "He's my father."

Her face showed shock, revulsion...and pity. "Your father?"

"There's more," I hurried on before I lost my nerve. "It won't be easy for you to hear it, but you must. If I don't make it back you're the only hope for the Alliance."

"Luke don't talk that way." she interrupted, really frightened now. "You have a power I...I don't understand and could never have!"

"You're wrong, Leia." I said quietly. "You have that power too. In time you'll learn to use it as I have." I looked away from her, struggling for words. "The Force is strong in my family. My father has It...I have It..." I turned back to look steadily into those wide dark eyes. "And my sister has it."

She knew, instantly she knew. Gently I confirmed it. "Yes. It's you, Leia."

I was braced for tears, for frantic denials, even anger. But she just nodded slowly as everything fell into place; her feelings for me - and her strong if ambivalent feelings for Darth Vader. "I know." she said softly. "Somehow I've always known."

I hadn't expected that. Hadn't expected that she could have anything but hatred for our father - but she did. Mixed in with the fear and revulsion was a dark attraction, even longing, much like my own feelings for our father. It reassured me, she too had sensed the good buried deep inside of him. She would understand. "Then you know why I have to face him." I said.

But she didn't understand. "No!" she jumped up and grabbed my hand, as if trying to pull me out of danger. "Luke, run away, far away. If he can feel your presence then leave this place. I wish I could go with you."

I smiled tenderly. "No you don't. You've always been strong." Like our mother.

Strong or not she was near tears. "But why must you confront him?" she almost wailed.

"Because there is still good in him." I answered simply. "I've felt it. He won't turn me over to the Emperor." At least I hoped he wouldn't. I took my sister in my arms to comfort her and tried to make her understand. "I can save him. I can turn him back to the good side. I have to try." our father had been a good man once and I knew that man was still inside of him. I had to save him, he needed me.

Tears streamed down Leia's face but it was calm now, accepting. "I think I knew that too."

We were in close rapport now and in her mind I saw flashing, disconnected images of a young Leia, hunted and terrified, with our father at her side protecting her. They had been very close once, though briefly, and Leia had never been able to forget that closeness despite all that had come between them since. 1 She wanted to save him too, but not at the risk of losing me. I couldn't blame her, I'd have felt the same in her place.

"There will be a Teacher for you." I promised softly. "May the Force be with you my dearest Sister."

"And you too, Brother." she answered.

I let her go and moved quickly away towards the ramps leading to the ground.

It didn't take me long to find another pair of scouts to surrender to. My feelings told me they were on edge - not surprising considering the way their comrades had been disappearing - and I was careful to make plenty of noise as I approached and to emerge promptly when challenged.

They radioed in and an officer and more troops arrived shortly afterwards by walker. Our little Ewok friends had definitely been making their presence felt. My lightsaber hadn't gotten much of a reaction from the scouts but the officer clearly recognized it for what it was and treated me like unshielded anti-matter. He may not have known I was a Jedi but he definitely knew I was dangerous. The entire detachment covered the unlucky trooper who searched me and snapped a pair of restraints on my wrists. After that they all kept their distance, but there were never less than three weapons aimed at me.

The ride to the outpost was moderately interesting, I'd always wondered what an Imperial walker looked like inside. It was incredibly slow, but that was an advantage giving me plenty of time to meditate and prepare myself for the confrontation to come.

I was perfectly calm and centered when the doors opened to reveal my father, waiting for me on an open deck slung beneath the landing platform. His mask turned towards me for a moment, then he shifted his attention to the officer at my side.

I studied him, trying to see Anakin Skywalker behind that black armor. Ben had once told me my father was 'the best star pilot in the galaxy' and I remembered clearly the pride and affection in his voice as he said the words. Ben had loved my father, but he'd also been betrayed and finally murdered by him, by his own Padawan Learner. No wonder Ben couldn't believe there was anything of Anakin Skywalker left in Darth Vader. Poor Ben. And poor Father too.

The officer handed over my lightsaber and then he and his guard detachment were dismissed with orders to search for my companions. I wasn't worried. They wouldn't find them.

Father turned and began to walk slowly towards the lift at the opposite end of the deck. I fell into step beside him without being asked. "The Emperor has been expecting you." he said at last.

"I know, Father." I replied quietly - and felt the name go through him like a surge of electricity.

"So," he managed after a moment, trying to sound triumphant but not quite making it, "you have accepted the truth."

"I have accepted that you were once Anakin Skywalker, my father." I answered evenly. When Father had first told me I'd screamed it was impossible and thrown myself off a gantry to escape him. But I'd made some progress along the Way since then; I no longer denied what I knew to be true - however unwelcome the knowledge.

Father, for all he was so much my elder, clearly hadn't reached that place yet. "That name no longer has any meaning for me." he said fiercely, stopping us both in our tracks. But his very vehemence proved his old name meant a great deal to him still.

"It is the name of your true self." I told him, backing my words with all the Force I which I was capable. "You've only forgotten. I know there is good in you, the Emperor has not driven if from you fully." I wasn't trying to mindtrick him, just to make him see himself through my eyes - see the truth of himself.

"That's why you couldn't destroy me." I continued quietly, turning away from him to look out over Endor, resting my bound wrists on the railing edging the deck. "That is why you won't bring me to your Emperor now."

Or so I hoped.

I heard my lightsaber ignite behind me and tensed. I didn't really expect him to strike me down - but he'd killed Ben, his own Teacher. If he'd do that he might do anything. I couldn't be sure of him - but I had to trust my instincts, andtrust inthe Force.

The blade moved through the air not far from my back as Father examined it. "I see you have constructed your own lightsaber." he said, and extinguished it. "Your skills are complete. Indeed you are powerful, as the Emperor has foreseen."

I didn't feel powerful, I felt like a nuna batting his head against a glass wall. I turned, Father had his back to me as he stood at the opposite rail, looking out. He looked so alone, so forlorn. I could feel his emptiness and despair like an ache in my own heart. I had to save him, to get him away from the Emperor. "Come with me." I pleaded, as unreasonable as Leia. Where in all the galaxy was there for us to go? I couldn't take Father back to the Alliance, they'd destroy him as surely as the Emperor would destroy me.

"Obi-Wan once thought as you do." he said quietly, then turned to face me. "You don't know the power of the Dark Side. I must obey my master."

"I will not turn," I warned him, "and you will be forced to kill me."

"If that is your destiny." Father answered flatly. But he didn't mean it, I knew he didn't.

"Search your feelings, Father." I pleaded. "You can't do this. I feel the conflict within you. Let go of your hate!"

Hate? The word startled me. I had felt no hatred from Father only grief and black despair.

"It is too late for me, son." he said in that same flat, weary voice, beckoning some lurking stormtroopers to him.

Then I understood. It was self-hatred that held my Father to the Dark Side. He had lost faith in himself and with it the power to change. And I knew, with terror and grief, that his despair would destroy us both. He was going to do it - he was going to give me to the Emperor. I had lost.

"Then my father is truly dead." I said quietly and let the stormtroopers escort me into the lift. The door closed behind us leaving Father alone with himself - with both of his selves.

1. All this refers to a non-Canonical, unwritten bit of fanon of mine in which a very young Senator Organa and Lord Vader are both part of a diplomatic mission to a restive world. The delegation, and most of the Imperial subjects on the planet, are murdered by the insurgents and Vader and Leia are forced to make their way together across miles of hostile territory to safety.


	9. Facing The Emperor

They didn't take me straight up to the Death Star but locked me in a holding cell for the remainder of the night. It was small and black, just like the cell I'd broken Leia out of, way back when we first met. I grinned at the memory of my dear, sweet little sister and her smart mouth. She'd given Han and me the rough side of her tongue - and maybe we'd deserved it - still she might have squeezed in a thank you in there somewhere. But it wasn't a good idea to think about Leia - not here, so close to our father. So instead I thought about him.

'It's too late for me.' Father had said. He believed, like Yoda and Ben, that there was no turning back from the Dark Side. But he was wrong - they were all wrong. I shook my head at myself. Now there's arrogance for you; pitting my judgment against that of two Jedi Masters - and Sith Lord to boot! But Dai-Men had agreed with me, agreed there was still good in my father that might be reached. And he'd told me that Jayce had fallen too - but turned back so it could be done. Somehow I had to make Father see it, make him believe he could free himself even now, after so many years. But how?

A way would present itself. In the meantime I settled myself down to sleep - I had to keep up my strength. Jedi relaxation techniques enabled me to escape into slumber, despite my fears, and the Force sent me a dream that was more than a dream.

I found myself back in Ben's little hermitage on Tatooine with my first Teacher sitting across from me, not a blue glowing apparition but a living man; worn and old from years of sorrow and hiding but filled with the strength of an inextinguishable faith.

"He's going to do it." I told Ben unhappily. "Father means to give me to the Emperor."

The wave of fear I sensed from my old Master was scarcely reassuring. "We had hoped to delay that confrontation until you were older and stronger, and had your sister at your side to help you."

"Leia!" I said in alarm. "I thought we'd agreed not to involve her."

"We agreed that she must not face Vader untrained and burdened by fear and hatred." Ben corrected. "You must train her so she can stand with you against the Emperor."

"But..." I began.

"Luke, Anakin your father was born to destroy the Sith and restore the Balance." Ben interrupted. "He has failed but his children, together, have the strength to take up and fulfill his destiny."

Which meant I'd ruined everything by putting myself in Darth Vader's hands. Yet even as the thought crossed my mind I rejected it. "No. No that's not true. Leia and I weren't born to replace our father, but to save him. I can reach him, Ben, I can turn him back."

"So I thought, once." my Teacher said sadly. "When Anakin first proclaimed himself Darth Vader I went to him, tried to call him back to his better self. He attacked me... we fought... and your father fell into a molten pit."

I gasped. Ben was responsible for Father's injuries?

"I thought I'd killed him." my Master concluded softly. "I wish I had."

His sense said otherwise. "No you don't. You want him back, just like I do."

Ben shook his head. "Anakin Skywalker is dead."

"No. He's alive, trapped inside that black armor," I leaned forward eager to persuade my Teacher. "I've felt him - and so have you. Ben, trust your feelings!"

He looked away. "I can't."

Finally I saw it. Long ago Ben had followed his feelings and trained my father against Yoda's wishes, and that defiance had led to the destruction of the Jedi. No wonder Ben dared not trust his feelings now. He was caught in a web of guilt and self-doubt - as trapped as Father.

I reached out to grip his hand, solid and warm, the hand of a living man. "Then trust me, and trust the Force. There will be a way, Ben. I feel it."

A faint smile flickered over his face. "That's Dai-Men talking." he said. "And Qui-Gon too." that was Dai-Men's father - and Ben's own Padawan Master. My Teacher covered my hand with his own, blue eyes boring into mine with a familiar power. "This battle is yours alone, Luke." he said with solemn intensity. "I cannot stand with you, only give you whatever strength and courage you can draw from my memory. I believe in you, Luke, I always have. May the Force guide and guard you my dear Padawan."

My eyes filled with tears as my Teacher's strength and love flooded through me like a warm tide. The vision of Ben's hut melted into light and then winked out. Abruptly I found myself lying on the shelf in my holding cell with my father looming over me like a black cloud. The transition from light to darkness was too sudden, instinctively I cringed away from him. Father straightened instantly, stepping back to give me space to recover myself. But I sensed my reaction had hurt him - and I was both sorry for it, and glad. Father's need for my love was the lever I needed to turn him back.

I sat up and looked at him. Jedi composure back in place. "Time to go, son." he said.

A squad of stormtroopers waited outside the cell. One stepped forward to put the binders back on my wrists. It made no real difference, I wasn't going to try to escape, but it did make me feel that bit more helpless.

The lifts to the landing platform were small Father and I had one to ourselves, the troopers following in a second capsule. I looked up at him. "Don't do this, Father." I said quietly. A simple plea with no Force behind it.

His hands clenched but he didn't answer until just before the doors opened. "Soon you will understand."

Understand what?"

The open air and sunlight were welcome after a night in a windowless cell. It was early morning and a hint of mist still clung to the trees as the waking birds called merrily to each other.

The officer from last night claimed Father's attention; reporting that he had found no sign of any other rebels - as I had expected. But still I found it necessary to turn away to hide my relief. I moved towards the edge of the platform to look out over the forest. Han and Leia were out there somewhere, with our little Ewok allies, planning their assault on the shield generator. Silently I prayed that the Force would be with them. As for myself...it was not death I feared but the Darkness - and my own weakness. I was a very young Jedi to pit myself against the Master of the Sith.

Suddenly I was hauled roughly away from the edge and spun around to face my father, his fear and anger as tangible as the gauntlets biting into my arms. "You will not escape me again!" he snarled.

For an instant I could only gape at him in complete bewilderment. Then I understood. "I wasn't going to jump." I said hastily. But I don't think he believed me. He didn't let go of my arm until we were safely aboard the Imperial shuttle.

I leaned back in my seat, closing my eyes as if in meditation. There were things in my mind that had to be hidden, buried deep, if I was to face the Emperor: Dai-Men, Chani, and the other Jedi. And Leia, most especially Leia - our last hope. I felt Father's eyes upon me but he didn't try to pry.

The conflict in him was mounting the closer we got to the Emperor. Maybe this three way confrontation was necessary. Maybe the only way to break the Emperor's hold was for Father and I to face him together. I hoped so. If I was wrong and Father backed his Master instead of me I was lost.

It hit me the moment we stepped out of the shuttle: a miasma of Darkness, of pure evil, unlike anything I'd experienced. It was worse than Yoda's cave - and much worse than anything I'd ever sensed from my father. I looked up at him involuntarily.

"You feel the presence of the Emperor." He said, and put a hand on my shoulder steering me towards a lift.

I was not ready for this. I couldn't be sure of getting any help from Father, I would face the Emperor alone. I have never been so afraid. But there was anger too. I was going to face the man - the thing- that had corrupted my father, condemned my mother to a lonely death, and destroyed my sister's home. I feared Palpatine - and I hated him for what he had done to my family. And I knew he could use both emotions against me.

It was a long, long ride from landing bay to the Emperor's lair. I had time to run through the calmness regimen twice and managed to attain a precarious balance before the doors opened.

Black. Everything was black: deck, bulkheads and the steps leading up to the black throne, turned away so its occupant could look out of the giant port behind it. The only note of color was the blood red robes of the masked Imperial guardsmen flanking the lift door.

I didn't wait for Father to lead the way but crossed the floor and mounted the steps to the throne a half pace or so ahead of him. It wasn't that I was impatient, just that hesitation would do me no good now.

The Emperor turned to face us. He was shrouded in simple black robes, the hood overshadowing a pallid blur of a face. All I could really see of him was the gnarled hands resting on the arms of his throne.

"Welcome, young Skywalker. I have been expecting you."

I hated that voice the minute I heard it. So sly, so sure...it infuriated me. I calmed myself with an effort.

"You no longer need those." the Emperor continued, gesturing with a finger.

The binders fell from my wrists. I looked at them - then at him. What was he playing at?

"Guards, leave us." he said. And turning my head I saw the two red-robes trail silently away to disappear behind the lift shaft.

Now we were alone: Sith Master, Jedi Apprentice and - what? I swallowed.

"I am looking forward to completing your training." the Emperor told me coolly. "In time you will call me 'Master'."

Never. Ben and Yoda and Dai-Men were my Masters. I would never put this creature in their place. At last I found my voice, I was pleased at how calm and sure it sounded. "You're gravely mistaken," I told the Emperor, "you won't convert me as you did my father."

He lurched to his feet. "Oh no, my young Jedi. You will find it is you who are mistaken...about a great many things."

He was close now - too close. Our faces were almost on a level and I had a nauseatingly clear view of that hideous, barely Human visage, furrowed with age and with evil. His eyes were strange, pale yellow and inhuman. I met them as steadily as I could and wondered how had he done it? How had this disgusting creature managed to turn a good man like Anakin Skywalker against Master, and Order and even his own wife?

It was the Emperor who looked away, to his apprentice. "His lightsaber." my father said and laid the weapon in his Master's hand.

Palpatine turned it over curiously. "Ah, yes. A Jedi's weapon. Much like your father's."

I gave him a sharp look. That wasn't true. I'd carefully avoided any resemblance to Father's old saber when building my own, modeling it instead on Dai-Men and Ben's. The Emperor it seemed was fallible. Maybe I had a chance after all.

"By now you must know your father can never be turned from the Dark Side." Palpatine continued blithely. I shot Father a sidelong look. No I didn't believe that - I wouldn't believe it. "So it will be with you." the Emperor finished.

Now there he was mistaken. And I took pleasure in telling him so. "You're wrong. Soon I'll be dead ... and you with me."

Palpatine laughed, a chilling sound. "Perhaps you refer to the imminent attack of your Rebel Fleet?"

I struggled to conceal my horror. How could he know?

"Yes...I assure you we are quite safe from your friends here." he turned to go back to his throne.

"Your overconfidence is your weakness." I heard myself say, or rather heard the Force say through me, and knew it for Truth.

Palpatine knew it too. "Your faith in your friends is yours!" he spat back.

Wrong again, your Highness. Faith in my friends was my strength. It had saved me more then once. I must believe it could save me again.

"It is pointless to resist, my son." Father said suddenly

I looked at him. There was such hopeless, helpless resignation in his voice. He wanted me to give in, to make it easy on myself, for he believed the Dark Side would inevitably win. But I didn't. I wouldn't.

The Emperor resumed his throne. "Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design." he said calmly. "Your friends up there on the sanctuary moon are walking into a trap." My heart jumped into my throat, the blood beating in my ears so loud I could hardly hear that loathsome voice as it oozed hatefully on: "It was I who allowed the Alliance to know the location of the shield generator. It is quite safe from your pitiful little band. An entire legion of my best troops awaits them."

Leia...Han...those poor little Ewoks...I fought to contain my panic, my growing rage.

The Emperor saw my struggle and deliberately taunted me; "Oh, I'm afraid the deflector shield will be quite operation when your friends arrive."

How I longed to wipe that sneer from his face. What would happen if I attacked the Emperor? What would Father do if forced to choose between me and his Master? Did I have the courage, the faith, to risk everything on Anakin Skywalker?

The Emperor leaned back on his throne, watching me with slitted, yellow eyes.

I breathed, silently repeating the words of the litany: 'There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no passion there is serenity. There is no death - '

Palpatine's voice scattered my focus. "You have grown powerful since Bespin." he observed. "Obi-Wan Kenobi, your first Teacher, is dead. His elder pupil saw to that."

I wondered if he sensed Father's inward flinch at the reminder.

"Who completed your training?" the Emperor demanded.

I looked past him, at the stars shining through the port behind his throne, emptying my mind of thought and memory.

"Not Rigel..." Palpatine continued musingly. "Nor Zenn. Was it the Brisen woman, Kenobi's wife? No..."

The first two names meant nothing to me, but I recognized that of Chani's grandmother. Unbelievably the Emperor was saying she was still alive - that she and at least two other Jedi Masters had somehow survived the purge. I looked at my Father and saw he was as shaken as I. He had had no inkling of this. He'd thought Ben, and now me, the last of the Jedi."

Then Palpatine said the name I had been dreading. "Jinn...Of course, Dai-Men Jinn! Son of Kenobi's old Master."

I tried, I really tried. But I couldn't repress a flicker of fear at hearing Dai-Men's name from those lips. The Emperor sensed it and smiled his evil triumph. "Your feelings betray you, young Skywalker, and your Master!"

I closed my eyes tightly, shutting him and everything else out. 'Forgive me, my Master, I have failed you.'

"You have been well taught, my young apprentice," Palpatine gloated, "but you can hide nothing from me!"

Regaining my inward balance I opened my eyes to look first at Father, motionless beside me, and then at the Emperor. How could Palpatine fail to sense the battle raging inside his apprentice? How could he be blind to Father's conflict? And then I saw it, the essential weakness of the Sith, of all those who use the Force rather than letting themselves be used by it. The Emperor could see only what he looked for, Palpatine wore blinders forged by his own expectations.

Our eyes met and locked. He saw that he'd lost his advantage. And I saw fear - fear of me. Incredible as that seemed.


	10. Battle Is Joined

The Emperor turned abruptly away, swiveling his throne to look out of the great port behind him, leaving me wondering if I'd really seen what I thought I'd saw. Why would the Master of the Sith fear me? I snuck a sideways look at Father. Maybe because Palpatine too believed I could turn his apprentice back - despite what he'd said before.

Suddenly the space outside the port sparkled as dozens of new stars appeared. "Aaaah." the Emperor gave a long sigh of satisfaction. "Your Rebel fleet has arrived." I didn't need to see his evil smile, I could hear it in his voice. "The trap closes."

I saw the flash of red and green blaster fire as battle was joined. My fists clenched. 'Calm.' I told myself. 'There is no fear, there is no anger, there is only the Force.' My gut wasn't buying it. It churned with rage and terror for my cause, my comrades, and most of all for my sister.

"Come, boy." Palpatine said. "See for yourself."

Reluctantly, but unable to resist, I moved forward to stand next to his throne and look through a small side panel of the great port. Father followed taking up his station at the Emperor's left hand.

It was going badly. The cruisers were taking heavy fire from a seemingly endless swarm of tie fighters. But the star destroyers were standing off, not engaging. Why?

"From here you will witness the final destruction of the Alliance and the end of your insignificant rebellion." I looked at Palpatine with hatred and my eye fell to my lightsaber lying beside his hand on the arm of his throne. He touched it, smiling mockingly. "You want this. don't you? The hate is swelling in you now. Take your Jedi weapon. Use it. I am unarmed. Strike me down with it."

No. No. I struggled to remember Tatooine and Jabba. Hate and anger led to the Dark side. I must not give in to them. But it was hard...so hard. I was no Jedi. I wasn't strong enough...

The Emperor read my thought. His hideous, hateful smile deepened. "With each passing moment you make yourself more my servant."

"No!" I tore my eyes away with a titanic effort and looked again out the port. No help there - our guys were getting pounded and there was nothing I could do about it.

"It is unavoidable." Palpatine said calmly. "It is your destiny. You, like your father, are now mine."

It wasn't true. It couldn't be true. I kept my back resolutely turned and struggled to regain my focus. 'There is no emotion; there is peace.' I told myself desperately. 'There is no passion; there is serenity. There is no death; there is the Force.' but the words of the litany fell flat, empty and meaningless. I couldn't feel the Force only the storm of hate raging inside of me. And outside a yawning, gaping black void waiting to swallow me as it had my father. I was losing...I was losing.

And so was the Alliance. I saw cruisers blow up and X, Y and B-Wings implode as they were crowded against the Death Star shields. Palpatine rubbed it in:

"As you can see, my young apprentice, your friends have failed. Now witness the power of this fully armed and operational battle station!" I whirled to stare at him in incredulous horror as he touched a control on the arm of his throne - right next to my lightsaber. "Fire at will, commander."

It took a full thirty seconds for the Death Star's planet killing beam to power up and fire. Half a minute before the thick ray of ravening green energy blew one of our biggest cruisers to dust. 'Slow. Ridiculously slow. And clumsy.' The cool analytical thought was so incongruous to my mixed up, maddened state of mind that I couldn't believe it was mine. Then I realized it wasn't. It was Father's.

I looked at him, standing on the other side of Palpatine's throne watching the battle from behind his expressionless breath mask and felt his distaste, his disgust and under it a buried grief . He hated this, hated the destruction and death of war. Hated it as much as Palpatine gloried in it.

Then I saw it, like an explosion of light illuminating the void. I'd been right all along. Dai-Men had been right. Father wasn't a true Sith. He hadn't been devoured like his Master. He was still Anakin Skywalker, he could still be reached. Saved. But how? How?

I think the Emperor must have felt my sudden hope. "Your fleet is lost." he taunted, trying to bring back my rage. "And your friends on the Endor moon will not survive. There is no escape, my young apprentice. The Alliance will die. As will your friends."

I wasn't his apprentice, not yet - not ever. But that voice, that evilly overconfident voice was bringing back the rage, the hate.

He knew it and smiled. "Good. I can feel your anger. I am defenseless. Take your weapon. Strike me down with all of your hatred and your journey to the Dark side will be complete."

I started to turn away, determined to hang on somehow. Through the port I saw our cruisers move in to engage the star destroyers at point blank range, a risky but smart tactic, the Death Star's planet killer beam was useless now. Suddenly something snapped. I spun back, called my saber to my hand and struck at Palpatine. I don't know - I doubt I'll ever know for sure - whether it was the Dark side or the Living Force that moved me. I wasn't thinking I was reacting - just as Ben, and Yoda and Dai-Men always advised.

Father's blade ignited, blocking my downward stroke inches from the Emperor's throat. Palpatine laughed - which didn't help my inner balance at all. I attacked fiercely and felt Father give way, the conflict within had weakened him. But I wasn't conflicted at all, power surged through me as I forced him back, and back until he stumbled and fell down the steps leading to the throne. I hesitated, waiting to see what he'd do next, unable to sense it because he didn't know himself.

Palpatine picked that moment to put in his own two-credits: "Good. Use your aggressive instincts, boy! Let the hate flow through you."

He'd have done better to keep his mouth shut. He brought me back to my senses. I realized I was flirting with the Dark side again, just as when I 'd fought Jabba. I loved my father, I wanted him back, but I also felt great anger towards him. Anger for falling, for breaking up our family and wreaking all our lives. I could forgive him everything if only he came back, I knew I could, but the anger was there and far to close to the surface for me to risk fighting him. The balance of strength between us had changed. I might indeed kill him and that would ruin everything.

I extinguished my saber and let the anger and hostility drain out of me. I focused on my love for my father, my longing to have him back - to know Anakin Skywalker. And in the new stillness of my mind I heard, faint but approving, the Voice of the Force. Yes. This was right. This was what I must do. I must make Father fight himself, not me. Anakin Skywalker loved his son, for my sake if not his own he would find the strength to reject the Dark side.

Father got slowly to his feet, lightsaber burning red in his hand. "Obi-Wan has taught you well." he said.

I sure hoped so. But it was Dai-Men's teachings I drew on now, the traditions of the Living Force, as I banished fear, anticipation and even thought opening myself to the

promptings of the Force. "I will not fight you, Father." I told him.

Slowly he mounted the steps until he stood facing me. "You are unwise to lower your defenses." but I felt his intention the instant before he moved and my saber lit to meet his.

Now it was Father's turn to attack, driven by anger at being shamed before his Master, but I was never in real danger. I could feel his turmoil, the conflict between his rage and despair and his love. Anakin Skywalker didn't want to hurt his son, he wanted me beside him, the two of us together forever. I wanted that too the only difference between us was on what terms.

Father clung to the idea of me joining him in the Dark side, of the two of us ruling the galaxy together. The funny thing was power wasn't really what he wanted at all - and never had been. He'd wanted peace and order in the galaxy and somehow Palpatine had managed to twist that desire to the Dark side, though I might never know how. What Anakin Skywalker really wanted was freedom - freedom from his Master and the Darkness he hated - and his son. And both were before him - there for the taking - if only he'd realize it.

I dodged an overhand strike then force-leapt up and backward to land on a catwalk high over the Emperor's dais. Father stared up at me, temporarily stymied. Now it was my turn to - well not taunt but try to persuade. "Your thoughts betray you, Father. I feel the good in you...the conflict."

"There is no conflict!" he lied, as mixed up and despairing as I'd been just moments ago. Good, good. Maybe all I had to do was push a little more...

"You couldn't bring yourself to kill me before and I don't believe you'll destroy me now."

I felt the anger, futile and self defeating, flood my father's mind. "You underestimate the power of the Dark side. If you will not fight then you will meet your destiny." and with that he threw his lightsaber at me.

I dodged, but it missed me because in his heart of hearts he didn't want it to hit me - though he couldn't admit it, even to himself. Instead it cut through the catwalk supports in a shower of reddish sparks dumping me on the deck below the platform that supported the Emperor's throne. Quickly I scrambled underneath it, hiding myself the shadowy forest of support posts and struts.

I heard the Emperor laughing above me. "Good. Good." but whether the praise was meant for me or his apprentice I didn't know. And I saw and heard Father heavily descend the steps and duck under the platform to look for me.

I stilled breathing, stilled heart, stilled mind trying to melt into the flow of the Living Force. The Dark side - I'd been told - was hard for even the greatest Jedi to see. I trusted the good side was equally invisible to Sith. It seemed I was right. Father hesitated, uncertain. Knowing I was there but not where.

Why was he fighting me so? Why wouldn't he let go of his hate and despair and join me as in his heart he longed to do? The answer came as soon as I posed the question: because to do so would be admitting he'd been wrong to embrace the Dark side. It would mean facing the crushing load of guilt he carried for the Jedi's deaths, for Ben's, for Mother's...I shivered a little at the thought. But if I joined him...that would mean, in his own mind at least, that he'd done right that the Dark side was the way. Poor Father. What was I going to do with him?

I could feel his baffled frustration, so like my own, as he cast about looking for me. "You cannot hide forever, Luke."

True. But I couldn't think of anything else to do - and the Force had gone silent again. "I will not fight you." I repeated stubbornly.

A sudden burning pain scorched my arm, high up near the shoulder. My hand went to it and touched cloth with whole, undamaged flesh beneath. Not my pain, not my wound, but Leia's. She was hurt...somebody had hurt my sister. Where was Han? they'd have to go through him to get to her. Was he hurt too, even dead? I dared not reach out to him. I tried to shut Leia out too but Father had already sensed my anguish - and it's source.

"Give yourself to the Dark side." he said, almost gently. "It is the only way you can save your friends."

Was that what Palpatine had told him? But Father had betrayed his friends, abandoned his wife and unborn children...Leia, Leia...what was happening to my sister? She felt scared but controlled, like she was still fighting...

"Yes, your thoughts betray you." Father continued, coaxingly. "Your feelings for them are strong. Especially for..." he stopped.

Desperately I tried to close my mind but it was too late. He'd seen Leia in my thoughts and seen what she was to me - and to him. "Sister!" he all but shouted in astonishment and triumph. "So...You have a twin sister. Your feelings have now betrayed her too."

His feelings betrayed a sudden fierce yearning for his daughter. "Obi-Wan was wise to hide her from me. Now his failure is complete. If you will not turn to the Dark side, then perhaps she will!"

She would. I knew with sudden, sick certainty that if Father took Leia he'd turn her. She was totally untrained, defenseless, she'd never even realize what was happening to her until it was too late. Fear was instantly followed by rage. My lightsaber flared to life and I roared out of my corner. "No! Not Leia, you're not getting Leia!"


	11. The Return of Anakin Skywalker

Father wasn't getting Leia, he wasn't going to destroy her life the way he'd destroyed our mother's! I attacked furiously, empowered by my rage and fear for my sister, forgetful of my Masters' teachings, of my desire to save my father, of everything but a frenzied need to protect Leia from the Dark side.

Father was not so centered and driven. He gave way before my onslaught and soon was in full retreat. I pursued him across the open area at the foot of the steps to Palpatine's throne and onto the bridge leading across a deep gulf to the lift shaft. He stumbled and fell against the railing. His blade came up to block my down stroke but I saw the move the instant before he made it and changed my aim, severing his saber arm at the wrist.

Lightsaber and the hand grasping it tumbled together into the gulf - just as my hand and Father's old saber had done on Bespin. I hesitated, my blade at my father's throat, unsure what I wanted to do next.

"Good!" Palpatine crowed. "Your hate has made you powerful. Now, fulfill your destiny and take your father's place at my side!"

Once again he'd have done better to keep quiet - though I like to think I'd have stopped short of killing Father no matter what - for his gloating again jarred me back to sanity.

What was I doing? I looked at the sparking stump at the end of Father's arm, then at my own artificial hand. I was becoming my father that's what I was doing! This was how Palpatine had destroyed the good man who was Anakin Skywalker; by encouraging his hate and rage until they undermined his better nature and overwhelmed him. He'd tried to work the same trick on me - and nearly succeeded too.

But I had an advantage my poor Father had lacked - his own example. All I had to do was look at Darth Vader, once Anakin Skywalker, to see what the Dark side would make of me and I wanted no part of it. I would not go that way, not if it cost my life and Leia's, and Han's too, Because if I did it would destroy us all and everything we'd fought for.

I had passed my trial, I was a true Jedi now. And as a Jedi I saw that only Anakin Skywalker could defeat Darth Vader and the Emperor. This was his trial and I must trust in him and have faith he would choose the right path. I switched off my lightsaber and turned to face Palpatine.

"Never." I said quietly. "I'll never turn to the Dark side." I cast my saber away and continued defiantly. "You've failed, Your Highness. I am a Jedi, like my father before me."

I watched the Emperor's glee turn to rage as he faced and accepted his failure. "So be it - Jedi!" he spat, then seemed to collect himself. "If you will not turn you will be destroyed!"

I tried to brace myself but there was no way to prepare myself for what happened next. Palpatine raised his hands and cold blue lightenings forked from his fingertips striking me to my knees. The dark energies shredded my mind and my spirit as my body convulsed in pain. I couldn't collect enough focus to even try to resist, but somehow I found the strength to call out to the one person who could save me.

"Father, please. Help me!"

And he did. Anakin Skywalker finally broke the bonds of guilt and shame that bound him to the Dark side and turned on the creature that had corrupted him. Suddenly the pain stopped. Struggling into a sitting position I saw Father had seized his former Master. The Dark lightenings coursed over his armor as he lifted Palpatine high and hurled him over the railing into the gulf. Then Father collapsed, his mechanical breathing un-rhythmic, labored. I got to my feet somehow and went to help him. A blast of wind and heat blew up the shaft fluttering his cape and my hair asI pulled him off the railing and laid him out on the deck taking his hand.

"Luke..." he wheezed.

"It's all right, Father." I told him, the tears pouring down my face. "Everything's all right now. You've come back to me - to us." It wasn't of course. We were on an enemy station in the middle of major battle -in danger from both sides - but I didn't care. I had my father back, at that moment nothing else was important to me.

"Luke...Dai-Men...he's really alive?"

"Yes, Father, he was my teacher just as Palpatine said."

"I thought he was dead...maybe I did see him on Moloc."

I laughed through my tears. "You did. He was there, he told me about it. He still believed in you, Father, in Anakin Skywalker, even after all these years."

"Which is more than I can say." a familiar voice said sadly.

I looked up. It was Ben, once again a luminous, transparent Force apparition. His eyes touched me briefly, his main attention on Father, his former apprentice. "Thank you, Luke, thank you for not listening to me."

"Just...like...his...father." Father said, and made a choking noise that might have been laughter - or sobs. "Forgive me, Master."

Ben knelt and laid a ghostly hand over ours. "If you will forgive me, Anakin, for not being a better Master, for not trying harder..."

"My fault!" Father wheezed emphatically. "All...mine."

"And Palpatine's." I said just as firmly. None of this would have happened without the Emperor.

Something strange was happening to Ben, he was changing...becoming younger. Now it was a Jedi Master in his prime, not the worn old desert rat I'd known, who knelt beside us and I knew I was seeing General Obi-Wan Kenobi as he had been through my Father's eyes and memory.

"Obi-Wan...I didn't kill Ken-Gon...I wouldn't have..."

"I know," his Master answered gently. "and so did he. It was his choice, Ani, his decision. He didn't dare risk being brought before the Emperor."

I knew Ken-Gon was the name of Ben - Obi-Wan's - son and Chani's father. I knew he was dead but it was good to know it hadn't been by my father's hand. Not that Chani would have held it against me but it would be hard to explain to the children that one of their grandfathers had killed the other.

Suddenly a loud whistle came from the Emperor's throne above us. "Your Majesty! Your Majesty! " a frightened voice cried, "the shield's fallen, we have fighters inside the superstructure. Your Majesty, do you have any instructions? Your Majesty?"

General Kenobi looked at me and I saw my Ben in his worried eyes. "Luke, you've got to get out of here!"

"Yes..." Father agreed, "go son."

"Not without you." I told him. "Can you walk?"

He couldn't really but he managed to make it to the lift. I let him rest, sitting awkwardly on the floor, during the long trip down to the docking bays then hauled him to his feet as the doors opened.

The bay was in chaos. The deck rocked under our feet from explosions and space outside the containment field was punctuated by blaster fire. Imperial personnel ran hither and thither in mindless panic, not paying the slightest attention to me as I dragged my father out of the lift.

"Luke, leave me." he pleaded as I hoisted him up.

"No." I had to get him out of there, get him to Leia. She had to meet our real father, meet Anakin Skywalker, how else could she ever forgive him for the things Vader had done?

Painfully I made my way to an Imperial shuttle parked in a corner of the bay, staggering under Father's weight, but collapsed at the foot of the gangway. I could risk a minute's rest - at least I hoped I could.

"Luke..." Father wheezed. "Help me take this mask off."

"But you'll die!" I protested.

"Nothing can stop that now." he answered calmly. "Just once...let me look at you with my own eyes."

I didn't want to do it, and not just because it was risking Father's life. I was afraid to see what the Dark side had done to him...afraid to see a face like the Emperor's, furrowed with evil and yellow eyed. But I did as he wanted...and it wasn't so bad. It fact it wasn't bad at all.

I didn't mind the flabby whiteness of his skin, shielded from sun for twenty years, or the scars of old wounds that seamed his hairless head, for theonly lines on my father's face were ones of sorrow and suffering, and his eyes were blue - like mine. I smiled at him in relief and a kind of joy. Now I had a face to replace Darth Vader's mask. This was my father, this was Anakin Skywalker.

He smiled back, though I could barely see it behind the respirator mouthpiece. "Now...go, my son. Leave me."

"No." I said stubbornly. "You're coming with me. I'll not leave you here." not on this doomed station tainted by the Emperor's Darkness. "I've got to save you."

"You already have, Luke." he answered. "You were right." he repeated it in in a kind of wonder - and joy. "You were right about me. Tell your sister...tell Leia you were right."

his eyes fluttered closed.

"Father, I won't leave you." I said through my tears

His lips moved soundlessly forming a name, Mother's name; 'Padme'. And then he left me - to go to her? Yes, it had to be so. She was one with the Force and now so was he. They'd be together forever.

The docking bay rocked as the instruments on the walls began to explode. We had to get out of here. I wiped an arm across my face and got to my feet, dragging my father's body behind me into the shuttle. Empty shell or no I wasn't leaving him here to be obliterated with the rest of the Emperor's creatures. He didn't belong with them - he belonged with me.

I landed in a clearing, not far from the Ewok village, and spent the hours as afternoon turned to evening collecting wood. Leia was all right. I could feel her presence, warm and happy, in the back of my mind. She hadn't sensed Father's death, I was sure of that much. How would she feel when I told her? Would she be glad Darth Vader was dead or would she grieve for him, or both? How was she ever to come to terms with Father now that he was gone?

It was full night by the time I finished building my pyre and hoisted Father's remains atop it. I'd wanted to take him out of the armor but I couldn't, it was fused to what flesh he had left. So after a long, last look I put the breath mask back over his face, choosing to let fire consume it all, Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader both. I thrust a torch into the heart of the pyre and stepped back, watching as it caught and the flames fanned higher obscuring the figure laid out on top of it.

"A Jedi funeral." Father's voice said behind me. "Thank you, Luke."

I whirled. He stood there smiling at me, a tall blue glowing apparition with a youthful face that reminded me of the one I saw in the mirror. "Father!"

"I will always be with you, son, that's a promise."

A knot inside me unloosened. It wasn't the same as having him alive but it was a lot better than nothing. "And with Leia. I want you two to know each other."

He grimaced. "I do know her, Luke, better than I know you. We've been intimate enemies for a long, long time."

"But you were friends first." I pointed out softly.

He looked at me startled. "How do you know about that?"

"I saw it in Leia's mind. She hasn't forgotten."

His eyes shifted past me, but I knew he wasn't seeing the pyre. "I didn't either. Ever." he looked back at me. "I wouldn't have let Tarkin execute her."

"I know." I said softly. But Father had tortured Leia aboard the Death Star and stood by while her planet was destroyed. That was going to be hard for both of them to deal with.

He took a deep breath. "Our relationship was ...complicated, Luke. Tell Leia when she's ready all she has to do is call, I'll hear. And then leave it be, this is between her and me."

"Yes, Father." I said.


	12. Farewell to Endor

The victory party was long and loud and the Ewok's fermented berry juice packed an unexpected wallop. As a result I woke to afternoon sunlight filtering through green leaves and a slight headache. Yet despite that, and my lingering sorrow for my father, I felt pretty good. The whole universe was a cleaner, better place without the Emperor.

I found Han sitting on the upper level of the village platform nursing a bowl of berry juice as our little furry friends and assorted Rebel personnel went about their business around him. He lifted his eyebrows at me. "'Bout time you got up!"

"I had a hard day yesterday." I answered.

"Like who didn't!" he snorted and offered me the bowl. "Hair of the Wookie that clobbered you?"

"No thanks." I'd already used Jedi means to rid myself of the aftereffects of last night's bash. "Han, I think it's time for that long talk."

I'd half expected him to shy away, as he had on the command ship but he just drained the last of his drink and put the bowl down on the platform beside him. "Yeah, I've got a few questions of my own. Let's find Leia."

She wasn't in her guest house or the Chief's hut. We finally found her coming out of the store house the Rebels had taken over for a communications center. Her face was glowing.

"Luke!" she kissed me enthusiastically, then kissed Han. "You won't believe it, news is coming in from all over the Galaxy; the Imperial administration's surrendered, they want to co-operate with us for a smooth transfer of power!"

'There's something that needs doing on Coruscant.' Dai-Men had said. Now I knew what.

"And all those Grand Moffs we've been worried about have been overthrown; Argan and Biggar and Molke and the rest!" Leia continued joyfully. "And best of all the uprising on New Alderaan was led by my brother! Val never went over to the Empire at all it was all a pretense, those terrible things he said about me were just cover."

"That's fine, Leia." I said gently. I knew how much her brother Valorum's apparent defection had hurt her.

"How could I have been such an idiot?" she wondered happily. "I should have known what he was up to right off."

"Leia, we have to talk." I said.

"Yeah." put in Han. "Speaking of brothers how about you two explaining how a farm kid from Tatooine turns out to be related to an Alderaanian princess."

We went back to Leia's guest house for privacy. I took a stool, Han and Leia shared the lower bunk. He put an arm around her shoulders and looked at me. "Okay, kid, start talking."

"Leia and I are twins." I began carefully. Our parents were Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala of Naboo -"

"I know that." Han broke in. "Get to the good part, how'd you end up on Tatooine and Leia as a princess on Alderaan?"

"We had to be split up and hidden from our father." I answered quietly. "Shortly before we were born he turned to the Dark side becoming Darth Vader -"

"Whaaaa?" I'd expected a strong reaction from Han, but not quite like this. "Wait a minute - you mean Anakin Skywalker was Darth Vader?"

"That's right." I said, watching him narrowly.

He jumped up and began pacing agitatedly around the tiny hut. "I can't believe it. It was Master Skywalker who led the attack on the Temple and started the Purge?"

"I'm afraid so." I said, then curiously: "Han, did you know Father?"

He stopped pacing. "Of course not, I was just a little kid. But I'd heard of him - we'd all heard of him. He was the hero of the whole Thranta clan. I can't believe he turned!"

"It was the Emperor's doing." I told him. "I don't mean Father was blameless, he wasn't. He could and should have resisted. But he never would have turned without Palpatine's interference."

Han sat back down next to Leia, still looking shaken. "I feel sick." he said. "Anakin Skywalker Darth Vader!" he shook his head. "And it must be even worse for the two of you."

"It's hard to accept." Leia agreed quietly. "But there was still some good in him, Han, I saw a little of it years ago. And Luke managed to bring it out."

"It was Anakin Skywalker who destroyed the Emperor, Han, as he'd been born to do." I said. "He came back to us, to the good side, and the Force received him when he died."

Han, child of the Temple, knew what that meant even if Leia didn't - quite.

"You said he spoke of me." she asked hesitantly.

I nodded. "He had strong feelings for you, Leia. Always. But he never knew why until he learned he had a daughter. He knew at once it was you." Her face was mask-like but I could feel it mattered to her. Part of her badly wanted to believe in our father's love.

"Leia, he wants to talk to you."

She blinked. "He's dead. You said he was dead."

"He is, but he's not gone. He'll always be with us." she bit her lip uncertainly as I continued. "He won't come to you till you're ready, till you call him. You should, Leia, for both your sakes."

"I...I'll think about it. Okay?"

I remembered what Father had said and forced myself to let it go. "You do that." then I turned to Han. "Okay, that's our story. What's yours?"

He gave me his crooked grin. "I was one of the kids being raised in the Jedi Temple. But you know that don't you?"

"I figured it out after Tatooine." I answered and shrugged. "The Force is with you, you've obviously had some training, and you're just the right age."

"What?" Leia looked from him to me in confusion. "Han's a Jedi?"

He laughed. "Not hardly, sweetheart, but I was training for one way back when I was a little kid."

"Remember what Master Jinn said about Jedi starting their training as babies." I reminded her. "There were hundreds of kids being taught in the Temple before the Purge, Han was one of them." I turned to him. "You know Dai-Men don't you?"

He grinned again. "And Obi-Wan too." I noticed he said Ben's real name the way Father did, easily and familiarly - as I'd never been able to. But they sure hadn't shown any signs of knowing each other back at Chalmun's. "You didn't recognize him?"

"I could have if I'd have let myself." he answered. "You know what I mean."

I did. Very well. I could have known who Darth Vader really was from the beginning - if I'd let myself, if I'd been ready to face it.

"Why didn't you tell me any of this before?" Leia demanded, sounding a little indignant and a little hurt.

"Because it's something I've tried real hard to forget." Han answered grimly. "I was there when Darth Vader attacked the Temple. They killed everybody; Masters, Knights, Padawans, even the kids in the schools."

I shuddered, imagining the effect of all that death on the mind of a Force sensitive child. Poor Han, no wonder he'd wanted to forget. Leia snuggled closer to him, her distress showing on her face.

"The only ones they didn't kill were the Initiates, the little kids, six and under." he continued. "They herded us together in some big, dark place...I don't know where. I don't think it was in the Temple. Luckily the surviving Jedi got to us before the Emperor could start doing whatever it was he had planned."

"I heard about the rescue, from Dai-Men." I said.

"That's when I met him," Han said, "him and his master Hamilcar Solo. They took me and a bunch of the other kids out to the far reaches and gave us to the Gypsies to raise. But we - my family and I - kept running into them, accidently on purpose like, and when I was twelve I signed aboard the Jinx as cargo boy and trainee pilot.

"Uncle Ham started to teach me about the Force, but I didn't want to learn." his face clouded. "I didn't want to be a knight I just wanted to fly ships and I didn't want anything to do with the Force. It hadn't saved Helisee so what good was It?" he thought for a moment then said slowly. "I think I was mad at It, crazy as that sounds."

"It doesn't sound crazy at all." I said quietly. "I'd probably have felt the same after what you went through."

"Who was Helisee?" Leia asked gently.

"My guardian, the Jedi I lived with. She was real old, retired and everything, but she got a few of them before they got her!" grief and pride fought in his voice. "She told me to run and I did - and then they killed her."

"There was nothing you could have done, Han." Leia said tenderly, eyes full of pity. "You were just a little boy."

He let out a long, shaky breath. "Yeah, I know. Anyway I jumped ship on Corellia and signed up at the Merchant Academy. Then I was drafted into the Imperial Starfleet." he grinned a little. "And then I helped a big, dumb Wookie slave escape and went on the run with him - and you known the rest."

By late afternoon the ground troops had rooted out the last of the Imperial hold outs. Not that the Ewok's couldn't have handled them but Alliance command figured our way would be a little more humane. Then it was time to say good-bye.

Leia gave Chief Chirpa and Logray the Alliance's thank you gifts; cloth, ration concentrates and a few small, low tech things like the emergency lamp Yoda had stolen from me on Dagobah. She cried a little as she hugged Wicket good-bye and we all promised we'd come back someday for a visit.

Back aboard the command ship none of us was surprised to learn our next stop would be Coruscant. Mon Mothma, Leia and the rest of the Alliance leadership would have to move fast to fill the vacuum left by the Emperor's fall if they wanted to restore the Republic.


	13. Welcome to Coruscant

The command ship and her escort of cruisers and fighters landed not on Coruscant itself but on the White Moon where the Imperial - now once again Republic - shipyards are, along with the military base and the academy I had once wanted so badly to attend - a lifetime ago it seemed.

The surface was dull white and featureless except for the occasional observation tower, all the installations were underground. It reminded me a little of the Death Star. I wondered if maybe this was where the Emperor had gotten the idea for his killer space station.

We were officially welcomed by the commanding officers of shipyard, base and academy. Mon Mothma asked me to sit in on the meeting to pick up what I could about the officers' loyalties and intentions. I wasn't wearing the black anymore, I'd taken time on the voyage to dig out the Jedi tunic and robe Master had lent me on Had Abbadon and do the necessary re-tailoring so they would fit properly. I was a real Jedi now and meant to look the part. And from the way the three Admirals stared at me when I walked in behind Leia and the other Alliance leaders they recognized the outfit.

The conversation was brief and formal; nervous promises of co-operation from the former Imperials and coolly polite acceptance from Mon Mothma, but the under-currents were interesting.

The Admirals finally left and Mon Mothma and the rest of the council turned to me. "You can trust them," I said, "for the moment anyway. The Emperor dominated all around him. Without him they feel lost and dazed. If we're firm and fair they might well reorient their loyalties to us."

"Do we want them?" Genbu of Ophuchi wondered. "They served the Emperor."

"They had little choice." I answered quietly. "When I say Palpatine dominated them I don't mean just by personality or fear but by the Force."

Genbu nodded thoughtfully. Mon Mothma frowned a little. "According to my information these men are little more than military bureaucrats," she said, "but there are other Admirals, Generals and especially Grand Moffs guilty of terrible crimes against the peoples of the Galaxy. Are you saying they were not responsible for their actions, Jedi Skywalker?"

"No, ma'am I'm not." I said firmly. "But degree of culpability is going to have to be judged on a case by case basis, and it won't be easy - even for a Jedi."

The planetary praetor sent one of the Emperor's own private shuttles to carry Mon Mothma, Leia and the rest down to the planet but when the landing ramp lowered it wasn't some Imperial flunky who appeared but a tall, familiar figure his brown robe billowing behind him.

"Master!" I all but ran to him, forgetful of protocol and dignity both, a big grin on my face.

His answering smile radiated warm approval. "Well done, my Padawan."

I had to blink back tears. "Thank you, Master." I pulled myself together and the grin returned. "What did you do?"

His eyebrows rose. "Do, Luke?"

."I snorted. "Don't tell me you didn't have something to do with the Imperial administration rolling over like this!"

"We may have given it a push or two." he conceded, eyes glinting amusement.

"So, Master Jinn, we have you to thank for this astonishing cooperation on the part of the former Empire." Mon Mothma said as my Master bowed before her.

"And my associates." he admitted.

I remembered those associates; Jayce and Raj, Jezra and Mylo and especially Chani Kenobi!

Dai-Men stood aside to allow the councilors to file past him up the ramp, Leia was last, with Han beside her. He gave the Master a slightly wary look.

"H'lo Deak."

"Han." Dai-Men's voice was warm and a little amused. "I'm glad to see your carbonite casing kept you intact."

"Uh, yeah. But I can't say I'd recommend the experience."

"Nor would I," the Master agreed serenely, then arched his heavy brows. "but it can lead to unexpected insights."

Han seemed to flush a little. "Not that I noticed." he took Leia's arm. "C'mon, Honey, let's get aboard."

The welcoming party was headed by the praetor, dignified in his official robes and a lot more at ease than his retinue of edgy, overdressed bureaucrats. Four Jedi hovered quietly on the sidelines - and I didn't recognize any of them. There was a man with a sad, gentle face leaning heavily on a stick; a girl with brown curls standing in the Padawan's position at his shoulder; a much older woman, her delicate still beautiful features framed by a soft white cowl; and beside her a Yoda - or whatever his species was called - slimmer and a little taller than my old Master and apparently female.

The praetor led us inside to a fancy conference room, all red and gold. He and his bureaucrats seated themselves on one side of a ring shaped table, Mon Mothma and her Alliance councilors took the other, and the three older Jedi sat between. I found myself standing behind Dai-Men's chair with the female Yoda next to me and the brown haired girl beyond her.

"Now then, praetor, who is in control here?" Mon Mothma demanded.

"I am." he answered promptly and confidently. "The Emperor's personal retinue and advisors have been arrested and confined but the planetary administration is functioning normally. I can answer for my people Senator, they are loyal."

"But to whom, or what?" Genbu asked, arching his brows.

"To me." the praetor said matter-of-factly, and looked Mon Mothma straight in the eye. "And I am loyal to Coruscant. That's why I continued to serve the Empire after the Republic fell. Maybe I'm fooling myself - but I think things would have gone a lot worse for the people here without me."

"I concur." the sad faced Jedi Master said quietly. "I and the rest of the underground have many reasons to be grateful to Lord Trae-Arlin."

The praetor gave a lop-sided smile. "Not that I've always willingly gone along with the kind of risks Master Pater liked to take!"

"Not liked, found necessary." Pater corrected.

Unbelievable! From what Pater and Trae-Arlin were saying at least one Jedi Master had been under the Emperor's very nose all along!

"I understand," Mon Mothma said dryly, "I've had some experience of Jedi recklessness myself."

I couldn't see but I could clearly picture my Master's innocent 'who me?' expression.

"Our first step must be to reconvene the Senate and establish a democratically elected government." Mon Mothma continued. "But until that new congress meets I, as the senior surviving member of the Old Republic Senate, will serve as Chancellor pro-tem. Praetor, I count on you and your administration to keep order here on Coruscant."

Trae-Arlin inclined his head. "As your excellency wishes."

Mon-Mothma turned to Dai-Men. "Master Jinn, am I to understand the Sith threat has been eliminated."

"Unfortunately no." he answered calmly. I looked at the back of his head in alarm and sounds of shock and concern came from the councilors' side of the table.

"Clarify." Mon Mothma said crisply.

"Those of the Emperor's circle actually on Coruscant have been captured and imprisoned as Lord Trae-Arlin has said." my Master explained. "But his consorts, accompanied by a small number of red guards, managed to escape."

Mon Mothma frowned at him. "You consider the Emperor's fancy girls a threat?"

"They are rather more than that." The old Jedi woman next to Dai-Men said in soft, clipped tones. She steepled her fingers and continued calmly: "Palpatine was old and failing. He drew on those girls' life force to maintain his own. But in the process he inevitably put something of himself into them; his malice - and at least a shadow of his power. I am afraid those 'fancy girls' constitute quiet a respectable threat." council and bureaucrats rustled in alarm. "Fortunately," the old lady continued, "they are unlikely to work together. In fact it is not impossible that they will eliminate our problem by eliminating each other."

"Needless to say the Jedi do not intend to count on that." said Dai-Men. "It will be several years before any of the Sith Witches are in a position to threaten the Republic. With the help of the Force we may track them all down before that."

Mon Mothma breathed out a little sigh, whether of relief or resignation I wasn't sure. "Very well, we will leave that problem to your graces. If you will forgive my asking, Master, exactly what is the status of the Jedi Order?"

"About the same as that of the Republic government." Dai-Men said, a smile in his voice. "We are picking up the pieces. At the moment there are just over a dozen Jedi here on Coruscant but we have reason to believe there are other survivors -"

"Master," I broke in, "forgive me for interrupting but during my interrogation the Emperor mentioned the names of three other living Jedi Masters; Brisen, Rigel and Zenn."

"Rigel!" the name burst out of Han, who'd been sitting quiet and uncomfortable next to Leia all this time. "Halleck Rigel was my best friend's guardian. I ran to their place during the attack but nobody was there. And I didn't see Bren or his little brothers in the holding cells afterwards. They might all have gotten clean away!"

"A few Jedi did escape the Temple attack." Master Pater said, then shook his head. "Halleck and his family didn't pass through my underground, but they could have found another way off-planet."

"I think we can depend on the accuracy of the Emperor's intelligence." Dai-Men said a little dryly, "but this is a matter for the Jedi Council, not the provisional government." and he made a seated bow towards Mon Mothma, tacitly handing the meeting back to her.

"The Imperial Palace was formerly the Jedi Temple," she said, "we return it to you."

"Thank you Chancellor, but the Temple is no longer a fit place for Jedi - or anybody else." Dai-Men said firmly.

"The Emperor's presence has desecrated it beyond any cleansing." the old Jedi woman put in. "I'd advise you to destroy the palace, raze it to its lowest level and crush or melt the metal, stone and plastics of which it's made."

Mon Mothma blinked. "We will, of course do as you advise, Masters."

"But will that be safe?" Praetor Trae-Arlin asked worriedly. "Who knows what the Emperor hid away in there, or what defenses and booby-traps he might have put in place."

"I agree." said Dai-Men. "We will go through the palace first to make sure there's nothing there to threaten the demolition crews."

We Jedi bowed ourselves out of the meeting shortly after that. "More than a dozen?" I said to my Master in the hall outside.

"Fourteen to be exact." he answered, eyes crinkling in a smile. "My original eight; Mother, Yedda, Master Pater, Nyssa -"

"Mother?" I echoed.

"Forgive me, I haven't introduced you; Luke Skywalker, my mother Kensai Teacher 1 Moriah Organa." He was, of course, talking about the old woman. She was a tiny thing, especially next to her tall son, but she had the same dark blue eyes.

I bowed. "Honored to meet you, Kensai."

"You favor your father." she said, looking me up and down with a gaze at once piercing and vague. "I knew him when he was a boy, and your mother later. Remind me to tell you about them - unless I already have?"

"Not yet, Mother. You've just met." Dai-Men said calmly.

"Have we?" Moriah wondered. "Yes of course we have. Forgive me Luke, but I've known I'll know you for a very long time."

"Mother is a seer." Dai-Men explained. "Sometimes she gets past and future mixed up."

"True." she agreed, unperturbed. "Just set me straight when I wander, Master Luke."

"Uh - I'm not a Master." I said hastily.

Her brows lifted in a way that made her look astoundingly like her son. "You will be."

NOTES:

1. Kensai Teacher, like Padawan Learner. Since I have a real problem with calling women 'master' I invented this title for them by fiddling with the Japanese word for 'teacher'. I have since been informed that 'Kensai' is a real Japanese word meaning 'Sword Saint' - talk about serendipity:-D


	14. The Jedi Council

I'd seen a lot a planets since I joined the Rebellion and most of them had been unpleasant in some way, Coruscant was no exception. Nyssa piloted our fancy multi-seated air speeder expertly through the long lines of traffic criss-crossing the skies above the gray and steel cityscape. The towers and blocks below us hummed with the tangled ambitions, anxieties and hostilities of a billion people. My heart sank, center of the galaxy or not I didn't like this place and I hated the thought of living here. But where were we going to live without a temple? For that matter where were we going now?

"We have temporary quarters in the old Senatorial complex." Dai-Men answered.

I guessed that meant I'd be close to Leia and Han which was good. I turned to Pater. "Excuse me, Master, but did I understand right; you've been working here on Coruscant for the whole twenty-five years of the Empire?"

He smiled a little. "All sorts of people found refuge in the under-levels. We did what we could, and we had help: Nyssa, her father the praetor, Kensai Moriah, Yedda and more recently Anuril Windu and Raj's girls -"

"Raj's what?" I interrupted.

"His crew," Dai-Men said serenely, "four very charming Twi-lek girls."

My eyes widened, I'd heard about Twi-lek females! I was a little shocked but Dai-Men didn't seem to mind and it certainly wasn't my place to judge Raj or anybody else.

Nyssa left the traffic streams to loop gracefully around a cluster of glittering skyscrapers and finally moor us to a sort of terrace several floors down the south face of one of the lower towers.

White pillars upheld the vaulted ceiling high above a floor paved with pink, gray and tan marble. A golden fountain bubbled softly and beyond it stood a circle of chairs with brown robed Jedi rising to greet us.

I saw Chani right off. She still had blue beads, matching the eyes she'd inherited from Ben, braided into her blond hair. She stood between Jayce, with his sharp raptor's face and red head, and Mylo Thraan, the big blue-skinned Laazord 1 Jedi I'd met on Kessel.

I saw Raj with his mop of curls; Jezra Antilles, Wedge's tall cousin; and three Jedi I didn't know.

I was a little surprised that Chani didn't come running to greet me with another of those embarrassing but delightful kisses but she stood there as demure and formal as the rest of them as we entered the circle. Four chairs were empty. Kensai Moriah took one, Dai-Men sat beside her and Pater next to him. I hesitated uncertainly.

"Luke." Master waved me to the remaining chair on Kensai Moriah's right hand. I settled uneasily into it as the others sat down around me, except for Nyssa and Yedda who took their places behind their respective Masters.

Dai-Men began to speak in measured tones. "Right now the fourteen of us here are the entire Jedi Order, which means we twelve professed knights are by default the Jedi Council. May the Force watch over us and guide our deliberations." We all bowed our heads, then Master turned to me. "Luke, you know most of our colleagues, except for Eriol Stargazer -"

A tall gray haired Jedi with deep eyes, both sad and serene, rose from his chair and made me a bow. I stood up and bowed back.

"- Fasha Rho -"

This was a tall blond with something faintly feline about her high cheek-boned face and almond shaped green eyes.

"- and Anuril Windu."

I exchanged bows with the beautiful dark skinned woman sitting between Rho and Jezra.

Master waited for us both to sit down before continuing. "Now, Master Skywalker, would you please tell the Council about your mission to Endor?"

'Master' I shivered. I'd just become a full Jedi Knight, I wasn't ready to be a Master or a councilor! But Dai-Men was right, we were all that was left of the Jedi Order and we all had to take responsibility for rebuilding it - however junior we felt.

Disciplining face and voice I told my fellow Jedi about Endor, the whole story not the edited version I'd given to the Alliance. And then I told them about that too: "I said I'd defeated Darth Vader, but was it Anakin Skywalker who destroyed the Emperor. Which was perfectly true - but I left out the part about them being the same person. My father's fall and redemption seemed too personal, too private to share. But now - I'm not sure I did right. I would appreciate the Council's guidance. Should the new Republic government and the people know the full truth?"

"I feel Luke did right." Raj said decidedly. "Master Anakin did a great deal of good as a Jedi, and in the end fulfilled his destiny and saved us all. I'd hate to see his memory eclipsed by Vader's."

"And there's the reputation of the Jedi to consider as well." Fasha Rho said frowning. "You remember the whispers of rogue Jedi towards the end of the war breeding fear and distrust of the Order."

Eriol Stargazer smiled faintly. "Speaking as one of those 'rogues' I would remind the Council we had good reason for choosing as we did - " 2 his face turned grim. "Better than even we knew at the time. Still Kensai Rho's point is well taken. We have nearly thirty years of lies and misrepresentation to live down. Admitting that the Republic's greatest hero became its bane certainly won't help us."

"I am uneasy about living a lie." Jezra said, face troubled.

My heart sank. She had a good point there.

Jayce, several seats away, snorted. "Come on, Jez, we've all been living lies for the last twenty odd years, hiding who and what we really were because we had to. How is this any different?"

"It isn't exactly a lie, Jezra," Dai-Men said, "but a withholding of truth." He smiled a little. "Which I admit is the next thing to a lie. But necessary I think in this case. Not only to protect Anakin Skywalker's reputation, and that of the Jedi, but Princess Leia Organa's credibility as a leader of the Republic."

I hadn't thought of that. What would being known as Darth Vader's daughter do to Leia's reputation?

"Perhaps someday the full story can be told." my Master went on, "But not now. Not while passions are still running high and the reborn Republic so weak. Agreed?" he looked around the circle. Nobody objected.

"The Chancellor-pro-tem and Praetor Trae-Arlin have agreed the Imperial Palace should be destroyed." said Dai-Men's mother. "But the praetor asks that the Jedi search the palace for traps and other threats before demolition begins."

Raj gave one of his toothy grins. "Our first mission!" and a hint of a chuckle ran around the circle.

"I suggest Luke, Mylo, Mei-Qan." said Dai-Men. Nobody disagreed, including me. Hey, how bad could it be?

"Shouldn't we try to salvage the archives at least?" Kensai Windu asked, but doubtfully.

"It would be unwise to take anything from the building." Moriah said. "All has been tainted by the Emperor's presence."

"Perhaps we could download the information onto data cubes." Jezra suggested.

The old lady considered this then nodded. "Very well. Kensai Antilles, you Master Stargazer and I will do so."

Then she turned to address the whole circle. "We have every reason to hope there are other surviving Jedi and they will make their way here to join us as Eriol and Fasha did, but it is fitting we continued the Tradition by training a new generation in the Way. Master Stargazer, Kensai Rho please bring your candidates before us."

The two of them got up and went out. Chani had just enough time to lean past Mylo and explain in a whisper; "Stargazer and Rho both have kids they've trained in the Jedi Way." before they were back herding four youngsters.

Eriol's two weren't much younger than me, a dark gangly boy who looked a lot like his father and a very pretty girl who didn't. Fasha's kids were also a boy and a girl but younger, no older than fourteen, brown haired rather than blond but with their mother's tilted green eyes.

"My Masters, I present to you my son Evrek and my daughter Elana." Eriol said formally. "They have been well trained it the Way," a hint of a smile, "though I say as shouldn't, and are ready for Apprenticeship."

"I have examined the candidates and agree they are ready." said Kensai Moriah. "Master Naberrie, will you accept Evrek Stargazer as your Padawan apprentice?"

Raj stood and bowed. "I will." the boy left the center of the circle to stand in the apprentice position behind Raj's chair as he sat down.

"Kensai Antilles, will you accept Elana Stargazer as your Padawan apprentice?" Of course she did.

Eriol bowed and returned to his seat. Fasha herded her two forward. The girl was expressionless but the boy looked scared to death. I felt sorry for the kids having to stand up in front of a bunch of strangers like this.

"My Masters," Fasha began, just as Eriol had, "I present to you my daughter Arkady and my son Dov. They have reached the level of acolyte and I believe them ready for Apprenticeship."

"I agree." said Kensai Moriah. "Kensai Kenobi, will you accept Arkady Montross as your Padawan learner?"

'I will." said Chani.

Then, unbelievably, the old lady said; "Master Skywalker, will you accept Dov Montross as your Padawan learner?"

Who me? Was she serious? I still had so much to learn myself, I couldn't possibly teach anybody! I looked to Dai-Men for help. He looked back blandly and didn't say a word.

I gulped. "I will." what else could I say with the poor kid standing right there in front of me? But I promised myself I'd say a whole lot to Dai-Men and his mother when Dov couldn't hear. This wasn't fair, not to me and not to the kid.

"You sound like your father," Kensai Moriah said, "though why he expected the Force to be 'fair' I can't think." she sat cross-legged on a sort of hassock in the dim light of her large but rather bare room. Yedda could be heard, busy with something in the huge closet.

I blinked. "You mean it's not?"

"Not the way you and Anakin mean." Master said, standing tall and still between his mother and me. He smiled, "The Force has a habit of asking for more than we think we can give - hadn't you noticed?"

He had a point there. Asking me to save my father and the universe hadn't been very fair either - but this was different! "I'm not ready to be a Master, I still have so much to learn!"

Now Moriah smiled. "Nobody ever feels ready, Luke, certainly I did not - nor Dai-Men either."

"If every Jedi waited till he felt ready there would be no Apprentices." her son said wryly. "You say you have much to learn, Luke. That's true and will always be true. The day you stop learning is the day you stop being a Jedi."

"You have had three Masters Luke," Kensai Moriah said gently, "it is time to pass on what they have taught you, and to be taught by your Padawan, the learning goes both ways you know."

"Indeed it does." said my Master.

I couldn't imagine what he'd learned from me, and didn't have the nerve to ask. I sighed. "I'll try."

Moriah's eyebrows went up. "Try?"

I grinned. "Right. Do or do not, there is no try. So - I'll do it."

"But why me?" I complained to Jayce in the elevator lobby. "Why not you? you've got a lot more experience."

He shook his head. "It would never work. The boy's afraid of me."

The elevator doors opened and we stepped in. "You are kind of scary." I conceded with a grin. "Okay you're out - what about Mylo?"

Again Jayce shook his head. "That wouldn't work either. Look, Luke, our Masters don't decide these things by picking names out of a bag. Master and Apprentice have to be enough alike for rapport but different enough to create a synergy. Dov and I have no rapport and he and Mylo are too alike - no synergy. I'm sure the Masters would have loved to give you a little more time to settle into being a Jedi, but of the twelve Knights we've got you're the best match for the kid."

"So we're both stuck."

"Live with it." the lift door opened. Jayce got out, then turned to say mock solemnly: "May the Force be with you."

"Very funny." I said and jabbed the up button.

"Remember," he added a little more seriously as the doors began to close, "The kid's even more nervous than you are."

"Is not." I muttered to my reflection in the highly polished doors as the elevator moved upward.

NOTES:

1. Laazord are large blue-skinned humanoids from a glaciated rim planet. They have weak red eyes which they protect with visors against the bright suns of alien worlds.

2. During the Clone Wars a number of Jedi, including Eriol Stargazer, decided they were fighting on the wrong side and went over to the Separatists. Of course as we know there was no right side.


	15. My New Padawan

The elevator ride wasn't anywhere near long enough, I've never been so nervous in my life - facing the Emperor didn't count, then I'd been terrified not nervous. All to soon the doors opened onto another elegant lobby with blue and gold plated walls and a pair of ornate double doors that slid aside at my approach.

I stepped through them and came to a full stop. I was in a small garden of raked sand and two kinds of stones, big jagged boulders and wide smooth flags, planted with a few shrubs, crevice plants and colorful lichens, all centered around a still pool reflecting the blue Coruscanti sky through the high glass vault overhead.

Chani was sitting on one of the flat stones at the edge of the pool, apparently meditating, but she looked up as I circled the water towards her.

"Nice." I said.

"It is isn't it?" she agreed, then gave me a little smile. "Don't look so worried, Dov's a sweet kid - not like mine."

"What's wrong with yours?" I asked, voice pitched carefully low.

"Nothing, except she thinks she already knows it all."

I grinned. "Sounds a like somebody I used to know."

Chani puffed out an annoyed breath. "Don't you start! I've had enough of that from Kensai, thank you!" I laughed. Apparently Chani's old teacher, Anuril Windu, thought she'd gotten what she deserved too. "Your cell's the one on the left. Dov is waiting for you."

Ouch. Time to face my Padawan - Force help us both!

A short, curved passage sloped upward to a big round room, its windows shaded by blinds, with two beds and some low pieces of furniture that could be either benches or tables, or both, made of glass and metal. Dov was sitting on one of the beds but jumped nervously to his feet as I entered.

I looked at his pale face and asked: "Are you as scared as I am?"

He blinked. "M- master?"

I winced theatrically. "Yikes, that's going to take some getting used too." and sat down on the other bed. "I don't know what they told you about me, Dov - if anything - but the fact is I've been a Jedi knight for..." I thought a minute. "Not quite a week." I shrugged. "I don't think I'm ready to teach anybody - but the Masters say differently, so I'm going to do the best I can. Be patient with me, okay? I'm learning too."

"Yes Master," the kid said, a little taken aback, then: "I mean I feel the same way. I don't know anything about being a Jedi!"

'Well, like Master Dai-Men once told me; a teacher is just a guide along the path, we've all got to find our own way. " I grinned at him. "What do you say we do our best to grope along together."

Shyly he grinned back. "Yes, Master."

"So, sit down and tell me about yourself. How old are you, Dov?"

"Thirteen," he said. "Mom says that's the usual age for becoming an apprentice."

I nodded. "That's what I hear too - but I was much older myself. I guess Kensai Rho taught you the basics?"

"That's what she says." he answered dubiously. "But I all I know is kid stuff: making pebbles float, plants grow, a little super running and jumping. There's got to be more to the Force than that!"

"Oh there is, there is." I assured him. "But it sounds like you've got a better head start than I did. I was brought up in the Outer Rim, Tatooine, where did you live?"

"On our ship, the Aurora Venture, we're free traders."

"Wow! I would have killed for a life like that." I exclaimed with unfeigned enthusiasm. "You must have really been around, even at your age."

"Sure have." Dov said proudly, beginning to relax. "We've been to hundreds of worlds - even Tatooine. But Mom and Dad wouldn't let us get off the ship there - it's pretty wild they say."

"They're right." I assured him. "At least the port cities are. The backland moisture farms are something else again. I was bored crazy practically my whole childhood." I shook my head remembering. "I couldn't wait to get off that rock, I had my heart set on going to the Imperial Academy."

My Padawan's eyes widened. "The Academy! You must have been crazy -" he blushed. "I mean -"

"No, you're right, it would have been a very bad move. But I didn't know that at the time. You see my aunt and uncle who raised me never told me about my Dad being a Jedi Knight."

"Mom and Dad didn't tell us anything either," he said, "until a couple of years ago when Arkady and I found Mom's lightsaber and worked out what it was."

I sighed. "We can't really blame them. It must have been hard to know what was best to do with the Jedi being proscribed and all."

"Guess so." Dov conceded.

Our little talk helped a lot, I know I felt more comfortable and I think Dov did too as we settled into our new quarters. Neither of us had much gear, our tunics, robes, etc. took up only a tiny corner of the big closet adjoining our room, Beyond it was an equally spacious 'fresher with a sunken tub big enough to swim in.

"Those old Senators sure did themselves proud didn't they?" Dov remarked.

"The perks of office." I agreed. Then added, "Some of them were worth it." thinking of Leia.

My Apprentice went down early, to help cook dinner, but I was alone for less than a minute. "You handled that very well." a familiar voice told me.

I turned to see Father sitting on the curved table-bench under the window. "I hope so. I still can't believe Dai-Men would do this to me - not to mention the kid!"

"I agree with him." Father said. "You are already a much wiser man and better Jedi than I ever was, Luke, for all my advantages."

"Yeah, well, they didn't stick you with an Apprentice when you were my age." I said, embarrassed.

His smile vanished. "No." he said quietly. "It was I who insisted on taking one against the Council's advice."

I blinked. "You had an Apprentice, what happened to him?" Oops, wrong question!

But Father smiled wryly. "Oh he survived the experience, barely. Raj was very briefly my Padawan, Luke, didn't he tell you?"

"No." I said, genuinely surprised.

"I can certainly understand why." Father said grimly. "I'll have to talk to him too - if he'll listen after what I did to him."

I didn't know what to say to that. Luckily Father changed the subject. "Did they tell you this was your mother's apartment?"

I gaped. "No! was it?"

"Oh yes. And this," he glanced around, "was her bedroom - our bedroom. You and Leia were conceived right here." I looked at the two narrow beds and he grinned. "Of course we had different furniture."

"You'd have had to." I agreed.

The minute I stepped out of the elevator on the main level Kamakazura, Mylo's wife, spotted me through the archway to the long dining room and waved. "Luke! Somebody to see you."

"Thanks." I waved back and turned to head in the opposite direction, down the hall to the terrace.

It was Han and Leia. My sister greeted me with a kiss, then gave our surroundings a regally critical glance as we sat in the council chairs; me in mine, Leia in Mylo's and Han in Chani's. "This is nice." she decided. "Not overdone like so many of these senatorial penthouses."

"The original tenant had very good taste." I agreed, and grinned. "This was Mother's apartment."

Leia looked at me blankly. "Mama? but she wasn't a senator."

I stared back. "Yes she was. Don't you remember, after she served her two terms as Queen of Naboo she became a senator - "

"Amidala of Naboo!" Leia said blankly, then fiercely. "Stupid of me, stupid! I heard Dai-Men telling you all about your mother - I was so impressed, she's my biggest hero - but I didn't think it through, of course she's my mother too!"

"That's the way it usually works." I said mildly.

"But she died." Leia said helplessly. "Padme Amidala died in the Jedi Insurrection, I've even visited her tomb on Naboo. How could she have been living with me on Alderaan three years later?"

"Because she didn't really die of course." said a voice behind me.

It was Kensai Moriah, wearing a soft white robe that reminded me a little of the loose dress I'd seen Leia wear.

"You're supposed to be dead too." my sister told her. "I nearly had a heart attack when I saw you at the meeting."

"Really? How odd." The old Jedi lady came down a flight of steps and drifted across the floor to sit next to me in her own council chair. "Well as you can see I'm not dead. I've been living on Coruscant these last years."

"On Coruscant!" Leia echoed in disbelief. "What were you thinking? This is the last place for a Jedi to hide."

"Oh I wasn't hiding, my dear, I was working." she stopped to think about that for a moment. "Yes, was, that work is over now." she looked at me. "Isn't it?"

"Yes, Kensai. The Emperor is overthrown." I assured her.

"Oh good. So now we're ready to move on to the next stage."

"Yes, Kensai. Rebuilding the Jedi Order." I said.

"And the Republic." she agreed. "That will be your job for a while yet, Leia."

"Terrific." said Han, finally getting in a word. "So I'm going to be stuck on this anthill for who knows how long!"

"Nobody's making you stay." my sister snapped over her shoulder.

He gave her his most roguish grin. "A guy likes to be around his wife, sweetheart."

"Does that mean what I think it means?" I asked, grinning myself.

Leia actually blushed, Han of course didn't. "Yup. She finally hooked me, Kid."

"Hooked you? You're the one who proposed!"

"Only because you kept dancing around it." Han looked at me. "That's a politician for you."

"She gets it from our mother." I told him.

He rolled his eyes. "Great! You mean it runs in the family?"

"On the female side. Along with a taste for smart mouthed pilots." I answered.

Moriah smiled. "Oh dear, yes. I must say I rather fancied that pilot of Amidala's myself."

"Father?" I asked in surprise.

"Oh no, Luke. Not your mother Amidala, your niece. Leia and General Solo's elder girl."

"Huh?" said Han

"What?" said Leia.

"But of course she hasn't been born yet." the Kensai reminded herself. "Why you two aren't even married, are you?"

"No, but they're going to be - very soon I hope." I said.

"Well it seems we got to talk to Leia's brother - her other brother I mean Valorum Organa - first." Han explained.

"I can't go anywhere quite yet," Leia continued, "but in a month or so things should have settled down enough for me to get out to New Alderaan for a royal council.

"Seems the surviving princes and princesses have a lot of stuff to talk about." Han put in. "Including our marriage."

"We're going to need a council decree," Leia said impatiently, "especially since you're dead set on staying a commoner."

I looked at him questioningly. Han shrugged. "C'mon, Kid, can you see me as a prince?"

I grinned at the thought. "No, not really."

"Jedi can't hold titles." Moriah said.

We all stared at her. "I'm not a Jedi, Kensai." Han said firmly. "I was training for one but that was a long time ago."

She tilted her head sideways, like a bird. "Have I gotten confused again?"

"Yes, ma'am. I'm no Jedi." Han told her, even more firmly.

"Not now." Kensai Moriah agreed tranquilly.


	16. The Imperial Palace

Dov went straight to the controls of the air speeder, reminding me abruptly of the Jedi tradition of leaving piloting chores to the most junior. Did that mean I was going to have to let the kid fly me everywhere from now on?

The speeder was long and slim, with a row of luxuriously padded seats down either side of a carpeted center aisle, and smelled pleasantly of the citrus wood paneling the ceiling and framing the big ports. I picked a seat at the back and looked out the window at my elbow as we skimmed away from our tower to join the eternal sky-jam. A number of other speeders orbiting the senatorial towers peeled off after us. At first I didn't think anything of it but then I noticed they'd joined our stream of traffic, jostling each other to get close to us.

"We're being followed." I warned.

"It's okay," Chani answered, twisting to look around her seat at me, "it's just the holo-news people."

"Huh?"

Eriol Stargazer leaned into the aisle to join the conversation. "We're big news, Luke." he said wryly. "Surely you've noticed the amount of traffic around our tower."

"Yeah, but I didn't think...shouldn't we do something about it?"

"Lord Trae-Arlin recommends we hold a news conference and give some interviews." he answered.

I grimaced.

"Yeah, that's how we all feel," Chani agreed, "but that doesn't make it a bad idea."

"The Order's reputation is to say the least questionable." Eriol observed. "Putting out a little first hand information might help."

"Or hurt." I said dubiously.

That got a chuckle out of Mylo, sitting opposite. "Trust me, Luke. Nothing could be worse than what the Empire's been saying about us these last twenty odd years."

"Only too true." Eriol said grimly.

The Imperial Palace was a gray stepped pyramid decorated with eerie designs and symbols in black, red and gold. A glass walled observation tower glittered like a giant diamond at the pinnacle and four slender minarets rose from the four corners. Dov landed our speeder on the broad skyway leading to the main entrance. As I climbed out I could feel the evil breathing out of the place like a cold breeze and shivered. No doubt about it, Kensai Moriah was dead right about destroying this place!

Slowly we climbed the tiers of steps lined with, strange hooded statues of veined red marble, and passed beneath cyclopean figures of black stone and into a portico overhung by stone blocks engraved with lightsaber wielding figures in strange robes.

There were no doors. We passed directly through one of the many black pillared archways into a canyon like corridor. Red carpeting covered the acres of floor. Red marble clad both walls and pillars. I wrinkled my nose. "It looks like they dyed this place in blood."

"They did." Jezra said flatly, and I remembered she had been in the Temple the terrible night my father attacked it.

"Eriol, Jezra, Yedda, Elana and I will be in the archive room, midway down the third level east gallery." Kensai Moriah said briskly. "call us if you have problems to report or need help. Luke, I suggest you and Dov go to the top floor and work your way downward. Chani, you and Arkady start on this floor and work your way up. Mylo you take the sub-levels"

"Yes, Kensai." we said in ragged chorus

"Be mindful, and may the Force be with you all."

I knew from the diagrams we'd studied there was a lift going straight up to the Emperor's personal quarters, under the observation tower, behind the throne in the main audience hall at the northern end of the grand corridor. Eighty meter tall red and black doors opened automatically before us. The room was big enough to hold Jabba's whole palace - with a little to spare. The throne on its high dais was carved out of a single giant black diamond and glittered sullenly in the cold white light filtering down from distant windows. The elevator, hidden behind blood red draperies, had seats upholstered in the same color.

"I guess the Emperor liked red." I observed, keying the controls.

Dov was pale, his few freckles staring. "I don't feel so good."

"Me either." I said grimly. "It's the taint of the Dark Side you're sensing. Be especially mindful. It's likely to slow you down and limit your perceptions."

"Oh...great." he muttered.

The elevator went up, then sideways, then up again. Finally the doors opened on another red carpeted corridor, but one with more human dimensions. Black pillars lined the red walls and niches held strange, golden statues. Black and golden benches and tables were grouped here and there beneath disturbing reliefs of tangled battle scenes. The miasma of evil was even stronger - though nowhere near as bad as the Emperor's actual presence. I looked worriedly at Dov. He swallowed hard but seemed to be handling it all right.

"Stay behind me." I instructed.

"Yes, Master." he said with some feeling.

It looked quiet enough but I just knew something was going to jump us - and sure enough, it did. Four steps in I felt like I was walking in deep sand, then my feet wouldn't move at all.

"Dov, get back into the elevator!"

"I can't, Master, I'm stuck!"

"Tangle-foot field." I said grimly, and scanned the corridor. "Get ready, we're going to be attacked." and on the word we were.

Web winged things with glittering metal claws and beaks dive bombed us from holes hidden in the elaborate gilt fretwork of the ceiling. I sliced through them as they came within reach, and heard and saw Dov doing the same, but we couldn't keep this up forever.

'Luke.' It was my father's voice speaking softly inside my head. 'The main power conduit runs behind that gold molding above the pillars.'

'Thanks, Father.' I said silently, then aloud: "Dov, cover me."

"Huh?" I heard him say just before I threw my lightsaber, guiding it with the Force to slice through both molding and the cables behind it. One of the bird things nicked my shoulder as the lights and tangle-field went out together.

'Hurry! into the nearest apartment.' Father said.

'Thanks, Dad, but I figured that out for myself!' I grabbed my apprentice with one hand, called my lightsaber back to the other and triggered the door's emergency open with my foot. We got inside just as the secondary power source switched in and heard bird things hit the door as it keyed closed behind us.

For a minute we stood there panting. I checked my shoulder, just a glancing cut. No problem.

"Sorry, Master, I missed one." Dov said.

"You did fine, kid." I assured him then I looked around and the decor struck me speechless.

It was like standing in the heart of a flame. The sheer silken drapes, the carpets on the floor and the heaped cushions were all of fiery scarlet or orange and the furniture plated with some red-golden metal.

"Wow." said Dov.

"Yeah, somebody sure had exotic tastes." I agreed.

'Go through to the robing room at the back' Father's voice whispered in my ear. 'There's a service corridor that will let you bypass the main hall.'

'Thanks.' "This way." I said to Dov, crossed the room to push aside a curtain of glistening beads - then threw an arm up to block my apprentice. "Hold on, kid, I don't think you're old enough to see this - heck, I'm not old enough to see it!"

"Come on, it can't be that bad." he lifted my hanging sleeve for a look, then dropped it like he'd been burned. "Oh, boy!"

"Yeah." I agreed.

The room was unbelievable. The reds and oranges were darker here, like coals and embers. The huge, round bed with its gold stitched scarlet coverlet stood in an alcove completely surrounded by gold veined mirrors - but it got better: A sinuously shaped couch stood at the foot of the bed hung with gilded chains and manacles, as were some of the chairs. And the artwork, of red and orange glass and gold, was ... well let's just say I'd never even imagined some of those combinations - not to mention the positions!

I put an arm around my apprentice. "Just keep your eyes straight ahead - and for Force sake don't tell your mother about this!"

"Don't worry, Master." he replied with deep feeling.

We got through that bordello of a bedroom somehow, and then across an equally decadent bath with a tub about twice the size of our meditation pool and a few fixtures I didn't even want to guess about. The 'robing room' with its racks of teeny-tiny costumes - all red or orange of course - was almost decent in comparison. A door hidden behind a gold figured hanging let us into a refreshingly bare and utilitarian passage.

Dov and I looked at each other - and it's hard to say whose face was redder. "Well that was - educational." I said.

"I don't think I'm ready for that kind of educating." said my apprentice.

"Me neither." I agreed. We started down the narrow corridor to the Emperor's quarters at the end, but just outside his door we met with another obstacle. A wavering blue field sprang up around us. I tested it with my blade - no go. "Ray shield."

"What do we do now, Master?"

"Good question, kid." 'Well, Dad, got an answer?'

There was a smile in his voice as he replied. 'Just wait. A detachment of droid guards will be along any minute to release you - then you slice them up.'

'Just like that?'

'Yup, just like that. Trust me, Luke.'

'Like I got a choice?'

"Master?" Dov said nervously.

"Be ready. Somebody will be along to collect us and we'll take care of them - I hope."

"Unless something else goes wrong." he jittered.

I grinned down at him. "Oh, it will. It always does. All my missions are like this, Dov, one disaster after another. You might as well start getting used to it."

"As long things work out in the end." he said a little dubiously.

"Oh, they will." I promised confidently. "Just relax and be mindful of the Living Force and everything will be fine."


	17. In The Emperor's Lair

A wall panel slid aside and a quartet of three meter tall droids armed with equally massive blaster rifles emerged and stalked towards us.

Dov gulped. "Master -"

"Size matters not." I told my apprentice, quoting Yoda. "We have a powerful ally in the Force." Dov's face showed he was unconvinced. I laughed. "Yeah, I know. I didn't buy it either - not at first. Don't think about it, kid, just do it."

A droid pointed a thingamajig at us deactivating the field. "Hand over your weapons."

"Sure." I said drawing and activating my saber in one motion. I sliced through the lead droid's gunstock than took off its head back-handed.

Dov made a lunging thrust sinking his saber deep into the midriff servos of a second droid then cut it in half.

The remaining two opened fire and seconds later were glowing scrap - demolished by their own reflected fire. I looked at my apprentice and grinned. "What did I tell you?"

"Wow." he said, deeply impressed. "We did that?"

"The Force did it." I admitted. "But we helped some." we turned to face the door to the Emperor's quarters. "Ready for the next crisis?" I asked.

"Sure." said Dov almost cheerfully.

We passed through some sort of monitor station, screens and indicators all dark, and then into the Emperor's bedroom. We stood on a high dais next to a massive black and gold bed with a blood red coverlet. The steps curved down to a circle of red carpet edged with padded benches. The walls were covered with strange, exotic, nasty looking weapons and the usual eerie statues stood around, glowering at us. At least it wasn't as embarrassing as the concubine's room, and the Dark side atmosphere didn't seem any worse than in the rest of the complex.

'Nothing to worry about in here.' Father said. 'If an intruder got this far Palpatine wanted to deal with him personally.'

'Did anybody ever?' I asked interested.

'No.' Father answered unsurprisingly.

Dov and I went down the stairs of the bed platform, then up another flight of steps to the door and through it. We found ourselves on yet another dais, this one looking down on a white, gray and black marble room with the usual red carpets and wall hangings, eldritch artwork and displays of weapons just like the bedroom. Sofas, chairs and highly polished black tables were scattered about. On the dais the throne was backed by a big bubble window overlooking the City and flanked by gigantic gold and black statues grasping short, thick jeweled rods.

'Watch out for the guardians.' Dad warned.

'Who? Where?' I demanded.

Dov clutched my arm. "Master!"

I looked up to see the long gold edged lids of the statue's eyes rolling slowly upward revealing glowing red eyes. Uh oh.

"Would this be the next crisis, Master?" Dov asked nervously, sotto voce.

"Looks like it." I muttered. Too late to duck back into the bedroom, better stay in here where there was more room to maneuver. "Remember the droids," I told my apprentice. "Size doesn't matter."

Dov gulped but nodded, hands shifting nervously on his lightsaber. Then things got worse - like they always do. The statues swiveled to face us, extending their glittering cylinder and with a rumbling hiss two gigantic blades or red light beamed from either end. Oh great, giant double lightsabers, just what every Jedi yearns to face!

Dov looked at me, appalled. "Okay," I conceded. "This isn't good."

'They're just droids, however they're armed.' Father said urgently. 'Relax, feel the Force flowing through you.'

'You sound like Ben.'

'Of course. He was my Master too.'

"Don't tense up." I warned my apprentice. "Remember those other droids, don't think about it, act on instinct." still a few pointers on practical tactics wouldn't come amiss. "We're smaller and more mobile and we've got lots of room in here. Dodge, don't block, and remember what your mom taught you about Force jumping!"

There was no time for more. The nearest 'guardian' took a step towards us and slashed his sizzling blade through thin air - naturally we hadn't waited around. I leapt one way, Dov the other, landing well apart on the main floor. The statues stalked down the steps to join us.

"Remember, keep moving!" I called to my apprentice then took my own advice Force leaping past the nearest statue's guard to hit it square in the chest with both feet then rebounding, flipping head over heels to a soft landing on one of the sofas. My opponent staggered a little but kept coming ponderously on. Still I'd proved my reactions were faster and I could get past its guard - now how to kill the thing?

I leapt one way, and then another to avoid a double strike from both blades and took temporary refuge atop a hunched golden statue in a wall niche. I looked around for my apprentice and saw Dov was doing great, he had his statue literally spinning in circles as he Force ran around it. I saw him dive between its legs with side strikes at both ankles just before jumping from my niche. Behind me my opponent sliced the hunched statue in half and emitted a roar of frustration.

Hanging from the decorative fretwork of the ceiling molding I saw Dov's statue lift one leg, leaving the foot behind while sparks as big as my hand shot from the other ankle. It swayed then crashed forward onto its knees. "Good move, kid!" I called. "Don't get cocky!"

"Don't worry!" he panted back, dodging aside as one side of the double blade came down at him. "What should I go for? The eyes?"

'No.' Father said. 'the brain is in the chest.'

"The head's empty!" I shouted back. "Go for the chest." Below me my statue was still roaring as it slashed its double blades through the air well short of where I hung. I swung myself a little and dropped behind it, trying to jab my saber through its spine into the chest cavity on the way. Didn't work, it barely penetrated.

"The armor's too thick." I said both to Dad and Dov.

"Yeah, I noticed." my apprentice panted, leaping down from a perch on his statue's shoulder just eluding its grasping hand..

I flipped backward to the opposite side of the room to avoid my own statue's blade. "Okay." I said. "If we can't do it with sabers we'll have to use the Force."

I called and the Force responded, flowing through me in a great wave picking up my opponent and flinging him backward to crash resoundingly into the wall which cracked from side to side as gilt-work rained from the ceiling.

"I can't do that!" Dov squeaked, stunned.

My statue pulled itself out of the hole it had made and started for me. Dov's stumped around on its knees slicing through couches and tables as it pursued my apprentice. This was no time for the 'size matters not' lecture. "Then throw things at it." I shouted as I dove aside to avoid a giant saber strike.

"Oh, okay." a small table rose, shedding bric-a-brac, and shattered against Dov's statue's face.

"Harder!" I told him, smashing my own opponent into the steps to the dais.

He chewed his lip. a big chair at the far end of the room lifted into the air and sailed towards the statue gaining velocity as it went striking the thing full in the chest and knocking it onto its back.

"Good!" I shouted, "Keep it up!"

My own statue pried itself loose from the broken steps and backed uncertainly away from me as I advanced on it, metal mind trying to figure out how I was doing what I was doing. I gave it another titanic shove into the throne and before it could recover blasted it right out the bubble window to tumble head over heels down the steep side of the palace pyramid, smashing itself to pieces as it went.

I watched just long enough to make sure it was destroyed, then turned to see how my apprentice was doing. His statue was staggering around under a barrage of furniture and object d'art.

"What now?" Dov panted. "I can't keep this up forever, Master."

I picked the statue up, smashed it against the ceiling then let it go. The floor shook as it crashed into and through it to the level below. Looking through the hole Dov and I saw it had somehow managed to drive its own lightsaber through its chest. The red eyes were dark.

"Got it." I said with satisfaction. "Good work, Dov."

"Thanks. But you finished it, Master." his eyes were shining with hero worship.

'Anything else I should know about, Father?' I asked silently.

'There's a door behind that big relief on the dais wall.' he answered. ' It's a door openable only with the Force. Behind it is the security control center for the whole Palace.'

Sounded good. "Up here." I said to Dov.

The big carved panel opened at the lightest touch of the Force. Dov was even more impressed. "Wow. How did you know it was there?"

"A little bird told me." I answered, leading the way into another monitor room, but this one was up and running. The indicator boards were full of red lights.

"Should we be worried about those?" Dov asked.

I shook my head. "This is the security control center, those red lights mean our fellow

Jedi are doing okay.

I studied the boards. 'The main screen control is the red and gold panel to your left.' Father said helpfully.

'Thanks, Dad.' I activated the big screen scrolling rapidly through the corridors and chambers of the palace. The first place I checked was the archive room, Kensai Moriah and her companions were busily downloading data - but there was a pile of sparking droid parts at each entrance to the big hall. Everything under control there, I scrolled on looking for Chani. "Got her."

Mei-Qan and Arkady were standing on a sort of catwalk looking down at a bubbling vat of something nasty. "Chani?"

She looked up. "Luke? Where are you."

"Security control." I widened the visual field enough to see walls of control boards, more vats and rows of man sized tubes, some filled with cloudy liquid obscuring whatever was inside. "Where are you?"

"It seems to be some kind of lab." she answered. "Gives me the creeps, Arkady too." her apprentice nodded emphatic agreement.

'Destroy it.' Father said grimly. 'Down to the last molecule.'

'Why? What is it.'

'A lab for manipulating the midi-chlorions to twist and distort life.' he answered.

I flinched. "Destroy it." I told Chani.

"I couldn't agree more." she said. "Can you turn off the security safeguards? I'd really rather not fight any more cyborg rancors."

"Been having fun, huh?" I said, scanning the boards.

"Oh, yeah. Loads." she answered.

'The master switch is under that little round center console' Dad told me.

I found the switch and closed it. Everything went dark except the main screen. "Okay, you're good to go."

"Thanks. Come on, Arkady, let's make some fireworks."

"Yeah!" her apprentice agreed so enthusiastically I rolled my eyes.

Dov did too. "'Kady loves blowing things up."

"So does Mei-Qan." I answered. I had a sneaking suspicion the Jedi were going to regret this particular partnership. Onscreen the girls worked assorted controls. Lights flashed red and smoke began pouring from the power couplings. "Better get out of there." I warned.

"I know what I'm doing, Luke." Chani answered calmly. "Come on, Arkady, the guys are getting nervous." the door closed behind them before I could get my mouth around an answer. Behind them the control boards exploded in a spectacular chain reaction. Sparks fell into the vats firing the evil looking contents and the tubes cracked and shattered. A big explosion whited out the screen, then it went dark.

Suddenly the quiescent boards around me and Dov came back to life. Programs in an unfamiliar computer language scrolled across the screens and yellow lights flashed green.

'Oops.' said Father.

"What do you mean 'oops'?" I demanded.

'The secondary security system has activated. I'm sorry, son, I didn't know it was operational. It was designed to cut in if the palace came under attack while the main system was disabled'

"Now you tell me!"

"Master," Dov said very nervously, "Who are you talking to?"

Double oops. I'd been answering Father out loud. The kid looked scared and who could blame him. I gulped and gave him the truth. "My dead father. He speaks to me through the Force."

Astonishingly Dov's face cleared. "Oh. What's he saying?"

"That we're in big trouble." I took out my comlink. "Kensai Moriah? We have a problem. I disabled the primary security system but activated a back-up."

"I see." she answered calmly. "Better get down here, Luke."

"Yes, ma'am."


	18. Jedi vs Droid

We had no trouble getting down to the archive. The lifts worked perfectly, the halls were empty - all serene.

"I have a very bad feeling about this." I said grimly, and my nervy apprentice gave me a nervous look.

The last doors slid open and we stepped over the broken bits of battle droid into a soaring, bi-leveled hall furnished with row upon row of holo-books and a file of reader desks. The others were already there.

"Well, Luke?" Kensai Moriah asked mildly.

"By deactivating the security system I triggered a back-up program." I answered baldly, without explanations or excuses.

Amazingly a faint smile passed over the old Jedi's still lovely face. "I wonder who came up with that?"

"You know me, Kensai. Always tinkering."

I started a little as Father's voice came out of nowhere, and saw by their reactions that the others had heard him too. Moriah was shaking her head. "Anakin, Anakin."

Father materialized at my side, head hanging in shame but with a glint of humor breaking through. Dov jumped; Arkady gasped and Elana's eyes went round as she moved closer to her father. The older Jedi barely blinked.

"Well Anakin, what can we expect from this brainchild of yours?" the Kensai asked calmly.

Father straightened, folding his arms into his sleeves. "The system was designed to keep intruders from escaping. Until then you're perfectly safe."

"So that's why nothing happened when we were coming down here!" I said, and Father nodded.

"And when we leave?" Moriah prompted.

I'd never seen a Force apparition blush before. "Uh, remember Grievous' Magna guards?"

"Vividly." Eriol and Jezra said in unison.

"I made a few improvements," Father admitted. "They'll attack when you get within thirty meters of the great doors - and those are the only way in or out. If you get past my Ultima guards there's still a battery of laser cannon in the vestibule."

"You always were very thorough, Ani." Moriah said dryly. "Well, it seems there's no reason why we shouldn't finish our work here. After that -"

"After that it gets interesting." Eriol finished even more dryly.

So we all set to work downloading the archives. I went down an aisle, inserted my high density data cube into the slot on the control board and set for data dump. Father hovered behind me.

"What do you mean the main doors are the only way out?" I asked as the indicator lights started winking out one after another.

"This is a fortress, Luke. They aren't built with multiple exits." he answered.

I looked over my shoulder at him. "Come on, you expect me to believe the Emperor didn't have some kind of emergency escape route?"

"He did." Chani said, putting her head around the neighboring stack. "But we trashed it when we attacked the palace - unless Uncle Anakin knows about a back-up?" she looked inquiringly at Father, who shook his head.

'Uncle Anakin' startled me a little but then I worked it out; Ben was Uncle Owen's brother which meant Father was his stepbrother too, which did make him Chani's uncle - sort of. Then the rest of what she said registered.

"What do you mean 'when you attacked the palace'!"

"Just what I said." she answered calmly. "It was necessary to destroy the Emperor's administration - so we did."

"Just the eight of you?" I squeaked disbelievingly.

"Twelve." Chani corrected. "We had Kensai Moriah, Yedda, Master Pater and Nyssa with us too."

"Twelve Jedi against the entire Imperial Guard? that's crazy!"

Her eyebrows went up. "This from the man who surrendered himself to the Emperor?"

"Uh..." she had a point there.

"You don't have to be crazy to be a Jedi, but it helps." Father put in, amused.

"That's what Raj always says." I admitted, then looked at my father in sudden realization. "He got it from you."

Father nodded. "He was my student, if only for a brief time." he reminded me a little sadly.

Finally it was done and the hundred odd data-cubes stowed away in the pockets of our Jedi robes, (bet you didn't know they had pockets - I sure didn't until I got my own). We descended unopposed to the main floor and started for the doors in no particular order.

Thirty meters on the spot Father's Ultima guards appeared, tramping out of panels that'd opened up in the red marble walls.

They were two meters tall, their skeletal limbs gleaming black, and armed with some kind of energy staff. They blocked way to the doors in front and retreat in the rear. Then they just stood their in their silent ranks, waiting for us to make a move.

"My droids have triplicated control centers in head, chest and pelvis. You'll have to cut them to pieces. And that's double neutronium armor, so it'll take more than one strike per target." Father instructed.

"Nice design, Dad." I said.

"Thank you." he answered ruefully.

"I count sixty all told." Eriol reported calmly.

"That makes it six apiece, no problem." Chani said cheerfully, and got a disbelieving look from Arkady and an almost indulgent one from Jezra.

"We're not all as good as you, little one." she said.

"Okay, I'll take on any you can't handle."

"Keep close to me." I told my apprentice, and tried to grin encouragingly. "I need all the help I can get."

"Not from what I've seen." Dov retorted with a pale answering grin.

"Trust me, kid, you ain't seen nothing." I said ruefully. "Why Master Dai-Men himself told me I was the second worst swordsman in the Order." suddenly I remembered who was supposed to the first and looked at Kensai Moriah.

The old lady smiled. "And I am so bad I've given up carrying a saber at all."

Huh?

"Stand here until they rust away the plan is?" Yedda demanded with Yoda-like asperity.

"Hush, Padawan, let me improve the odds a bit first." Moriah said serenely. "Stand back everyone, if you please."

As we edged away she turned sideways, extending both arms. A tremendous inrush of the Force almost sucked me off my feet focused on her little dark robed figure, then she made a slight shoving gesture with her hands and the Force surged outward mowing down the nearest ranks of droids and sending the pieces skittering sparking across the marble floor.

Wow. No wonder she didn't bother with a saber. Then the remaining droids attacked and things got real interesting just as Eriol had predicted.

Father had programmed his guards for hand to hand, maybe especially for Jedi, and those energy staffs were no joke. I blocked and ducked and leapt and rolled and got in a cut whenever I could, doing my best to cover my apprentice. I was reasonably effective but my moves were clumsy and uneconomical and I knew it. Ducking low under a swinging staff I took a leaf out of my student's book and hacked the droid off its feet with a fore and back strike. It toppled with a crash and Dov sawed off the head while I stabbed it through the chest. A sparking leg lifted and nearly caught me from behind. I spun and hacked it off then thrust my blade through the joint into the pelvis.

"Remember, Luke, three motive centers." my father said urgently.

"I remember," I panted, "I remember."

"Look out!" a staff came through Father's apparition, I dodged just in time, knocking it out of line with my saber. Father vanished as a green blade came through the droid's chest and I hacked off its head.

Dov appeared behind the droid as the torso crashed to the floor. A prehensile robotic foot reached out to grab the fallen staff. "The pelvis!" Father shouted, popping back into existence next to me. My apprentice and I struck simultaneously slicing the lower half of the droid in two.

"I know, I know!" I snapped. "Dad, you are not helping my focus here!"

"Sorry, Son." he disappeared again.

I looked around. Yedda was bouncing around like a berserk balf ball with a wheeling lightsaber. Chani was almost as fast and agile, spinning and leaping, using feet as well as blade. Jezra and Eriol in contrast seemed scarcely to move letting the enemy come to them dodging the droids' blows and getting in their own strikes with deft economy. Mylo was the powerhouse I remembered from Kessel, unstoppable as Vader and far more graceful. Even the padawans had more style than I did. No question about it, I had to do something about my swordsmanship - and soon!

Kensai Moriah wasn't using a blade at all. She stood perfectly still with eyes half closed, but I could feel the Force swirling round her and her fingers moved in tiny gestures snatching up droids and hurling them against walls, columns and floor.

Almost all the Ultima guards were in pieces and the few still on their feet were sliced or smashed into uselessness as I watched. Hmmmm...maybe twelve Jedi against the Imperial guard wasn't as crazy as I'd thought.

Father rematerialized looking frustrated. "I HATE being a Force apparition!"

Moriah clucked her tongue. "Don't waste your time wishing and wanting, Anakin. Accept and make the most of who you are."

"I was never very good at acceptance." Father said grimly. "Which, come to think of it, is how I ended up as an apparition."

"It's never to late to change, dear." the old Jedi answered calmly. "You said something about laser cannon I believe?"

"Yes, covering the vestibule."

"Follow me." the Kensai said, and we did. Her eyes were all the way closed now and she glided smooth as if she was riding a repulsor disk across the marble tiled floor. I started a little as apertures opened in the walls and a number ugly cannon muzzles slid out. The Force rippled just before they opened fire and the thick red beams cris-crossed well above our heads as each battery demolished the other.

The walls exploded, showering us with fragments of stone and metal. Mylo strode forward, sweeping up Yedda in one arm and the Kensai with the other. "Run!"

The rest of us didn't need to be told twice.

We hurtled down the long stairs as they quivered under our feet and the building behind us rumbled with explosions. Gaining the cover of our transport we turned back for a look. Flames belched from the entrance as the carved pylons came crashing down shattering into boulders that swept away the creepy statues lining the steps. The five towers shivered into pieces and fell straight down into the bulk of the palace and if crushed by a giant hand. Then the whole mountainous mass quivered and came apart, imploding with a roar as fire spurted redly upwards and a blast of heat swept over us flapping our robes.

"Chain reaction." Father said, sounding a little awed.

"I do seem to have overdone it a bit." Kensai Moriah conceded serenely.

"Mind the Praetor will not." said her apprentice. "Save him much labor this will."

Eriol was looking upward, and I followed his gaze to the circling news skimmers. "Something tells me we've just made quite an impression." he murmured a little ruefully.

"But maybe not quite the one we want." I said.


	19. The Return of the Jedi

Here I sit, Luke Skywalker Jedi Master and Councilor,next tomy fellow Councilors facing the Supreme Chancellor, (pro-tem) across her desk with my Padawan at my back. Can you believe it? I sure didn't. I'd get used to it I knew - I'd gotten used to being an officer hadn't I? - but it would take time, more than I'd had so far.

I pulled my mind back to the moment. Mon Mothma had taken over the old Chancellor's offices in the Senate block. Her desk stood in front of a big panoramic window curtained in gauzethat cutthe light to a restful amber half-glow. The wholeroom was done in shades of beige, even the artwork.

"The destruction of the Imperial palace was serendipitous but startling." she was saying.

"And unintentional." Dai-Men smiled.

"It was my fault I'm afraid," I put in, "I accidently triggered a backup security program."

Kensai Moriah shook her head. "No, Luke, it was my doing. I started the chain reaction."

"Whoever was responsible it was for the best." Praetor Tre-Arlin said firmly from his place beside the Chancellor. "It saved us a lot of trouble and labor."

Mon Mothma nodded agreement. "Fortunately the fire didn't spread to neighboring structures.

"I decided it wouldn't." Kensai said serenely.

I grinned a little. Manipulating probabilities is one of the rarest and most subtle powers of the Force - way out of my league but relatively easy for a seer like Moriah. Mon Mothma looked baffled but the Praetor seemed to understand. He'd probably heard it all before.

The Chancellor recovered herself and continued: "The spectacular destruction of the Emperor's palace sent a clear message through the galaxy. His regime is ended."

"And Jedi are dangerous to cross." said Tre-Arlin.

Dai-Men sighed and looked troubled. "Fear is the last thing we want from the peoples of the Republic."

"I understand." said the Praetor. "But fear is what you are going to get unless you let yourselves be seen and known."

We knew what that meant. The three of us exchanged looks, communing silently through the Force. Finally Dai-Men turned back to Tre-Arlin. "We accept that." he said resignedly. "We will speak to the media, if you will make the necessary arrangements."

He bowed. "Gladly Master."

"One further matter." said Mon Mothma. "The Council of the Alliance and I agree that the Jedi should take a seat in the new Republic Senate."

I frowned. Surely we hadn't had one in the old days.

"It is the part of the Jedi to serve not to rule." Dai-Men reminded her.

"To serve and to counsel." Mon Mothma argued. "A Senate seat would allow the Jedi's voice to be heard directly by the People through their representatives."

"We don't want to get mixed up in politics." I said.

"I don't think we can avoid it if we are to serve the Republic." Moriah said, eyes suddenly clear and focused on the moment. "I foresee many possibilities. Not all bad."

"In the old days we served through the Chancellor." Dai-Men observed.

"Exactly." Mon Mothma said grimly. "Think, Master Jedi, had you had a voice in the Senate the Emperor would not have been able to manipulate you - and us - as he did."

"I am not so sure of that." Dai-Men said ruefully. "Your Excellency understands we must discuss your offer with the rest of the Council."

"Of course."

"It seems to me the Old Jedi were too closely entwined with the government. I would not repeat that mistake." said Eriol.

"Yet we if we are to function as guardians of peace and justice we must have the authority of the Republic behind us." Mylo pointed out.

We sat in our council circle with the busy skies of Coruscant dimming around us and lights beginning to sparkle on towers and skimmers. I looked at the coil of smoke still rising lazily from the ruins of the Imperial palace and let thought and emotion drain from my mind. It didn't help.

I shook my head impatiently. "My feelings are not clear. I see both advantage and danger in equal measure."

"As do I." Dai-Men said ruefully. He glanced aside: "Mother?"

There was a glint of humor in the blue eyes Moriah raised to meet her son's. "Always in motion is the future. We must not focus on our anxieties but on the need of the moment. Be aware of the Living Force."

Dai-Men's eyebrows arched. "That is supposed to be my line." A chuckle ran around our circle.

"It was your father's first." his mother returned serenely. "And always good advice."

"I don't know about you, Master." I said ruefully. "But as far as I'm concerned the Living Force isn't talking!"

'Then let us consider the needs of the moment." said Anuril Windu. "We are going to need the New Republic and they are going to need us. A senate seat will not only give us a voice but an ear." She looked at Eriol. "Much was kept from us in the old days. Too much."

"Jedi are meant to serve not govern." He answered firmly.

Master Pater frowned in thought. "Perhaps a limited membership...a voice but not a vote?" he offered

Raj nodded. "I like that."

Chani agreed. "It would let us put our two credits worth into the debates but leave the final decision to the People's representatives."

"Isn't influencing a decision the same as making it?" Jezra wanted to know.

"Excuse me," said Jayce, "but don't we have to live in this Galaxy too? What is so awful about the Jedi having a say in how it's run?"

"Submitting ourselves to the Supreme Chancellor didn't work out very well, you may recall." Fasha Rho said dryly.

"I would prefer to disassociate the Order entirely from the power structure." Dai-Men said, then raised a hand to stem protests from around the circle. "I realize that isn't practicable. I suggest we make a trial of the limited membership suggested by Master Pater. To end after the elections when both this Council and the Senate will reconsider the matter."

That sounded doable. I nodded along with the others.

"Very well. I will transmit our answer to the Chancellor pro-tem." my Master said. briskly.

After the Council had dispersed I wandered down the terrace, past the fountain, towatch the streams of traffic criss-cross the dusk sky like chains of sparkling jewels.

"Well, Luke, how do you like Coruscant?"

I turned to see my Master's leonine profile silhouetted against the pale afterglow in the east. "Well...it's a interesting place to visit but I don't want to live here."

He smiled faintly, folding his arms. "I understand. I was born on this world and lived here till my twenties but the 'Jinx' is more a home to me than Coruscant ever was."

"So, no new Temple?"

"Definitely not. This is no place for Jedi."

I nodded agreement. "It's too - " I searched for a word. "Too noisy here." I didn't mean sound-noise but the jumble of emotions and ambitions from billions of people permeating the Force.

Of course Master understood. "Yes. We shut it out by cloistering ourselves away in the Temple. A mistake we definitely do not want to repeat."

"No." The Jedi had paid dearly for their alienation from the rest of the Galaxy.

"Where would you like to live, Luke?"

I sighed. "I hoped to go back to Tatooine with Chani. It's home to us both, but I guess that won't be possible."

"Not right away perhaps." Dai-Men answered. "The Council at least will have to remain on or near Coruscant but Jedi didn't always live all together in a giant temple. In the Ancient days before the Sith wars we were scattered across the Galaxy as hermits or in small communities."

"Like Yoda and Ben." I said.

He smiled. "And others roamed between the stars like Fasha on her 'Aurora Venture' or me on my 'Jinx'.

"We'll need some kind of coordinating structure." I said, considering the practicalities.

Master nodded. "But not the extreme centralization of the old Temple."I agreed,that had definitely been a mistake. "It's too early to make any firm plans. We must see how many Jedi have survived first."

"And where they've been and what they've been doing." I said. We'd already heard from abouthalf a dozen. "Master, we're going to need a bigger place."

"I certainly hope so." he lifted his head to look at the slim crescent of the White Moon and a gibbous Green Moon, pale and translucent in the grey-blue sky. "There is much to be done."

"Isn't there always?" I asked dryly.

He laughed. "Very true. A Jedi's work is never done, Luke."

"If it ever was we'd no longer be Jedi." I answered.


End file.
